Your next Apple Watch could have this massive AI health upgrade – and no new sensors are needed

• Future Apple Watch models might use AI to detect health issues
• Apple believes this approach is more accurate than traditional sensors
• But it raises questions over the privacy of your sensitive health data

There’s a lot of doom and gloom surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) these days, and it’s justified in many cases. But one area where AI can potentially make a hugely positive impact is in healthcare, and it looks like Apple is considering whether machine learning power can bolster health metrics in future Apple Watch models. There’s no guarantee it’ll make it into a finished product, but if it does, it could upend how you manage your wellbeing through the wearable.

That idea comes from a recent research paper published by Apple's Machine Learning Research arm. There, the company states that a new AI model trained on Apple Watch behavioral data is able to predict a wide array of health ailments. Impressively, Apple claims that the model is able to detect these conditions more accurately than the sensors you’ll typically find in many of the best smartwatches today.

While traditional wrist-based health analytics work by scanning real-time data directly provided to them by your wearable’s sensors, the AI model is instead able to spot patterns in the way you exercise, move and sleep. It then uses that information to identify any potential issues with your wellbeing.

Apple says that its AI model – dubbed the Wearable Behavior Model, or WBM – is particularly good at recognizing the signs of pregnancy, where it achieved up to 92% accuracy when combined with biometric data.

The model was also a strong performer when it came to determining static health states – such as whether you’re taking beta blockers – and transient health conditions like sleep quality.

Potential controversy ahead

AI models have generated a lot of controversy over the ways they are trained, with journalists, artists and more arguing that their works have been used without permission by AI companies. How does Apple’s reputation for watertight privacy controls square with this concern when it comes to the Apple Watch’s AI model?

Well, the model’s training data apparently came from Apple’s Heart and Movement Study, where 160,000 participants voluntarily shared their health data through iPhones and Apple Watches. Over 2.5 billion hours of data were used to shape the model, and it was tested across 57 different health-related tasks.

Still, there remain significant privacy concerns over the combination of AI and health analytics, such as when it comes to pregnancy data. With reproductive rights being rolled back in many places, the idea of this kind of information being fed into an opaque AI algorithm – even one produced by privacy champion Apple – will be an uncomfortable prospect for many.

It also comes at a time when United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to “make America healthy again” by encouraging every American to own a wearable within four years. How will AI figure in such a plan? We don’t know for sure, but if Apple’s AI makes it into the Apple Watch, we could soon find out.

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