Forward Health Launches the AI-Powered CarePod

“There’s something for everybody” according to Forward Health’s creepy new marketing pitch for its recently unveiled “CarePod”, an all-in-one, AI-powered uh, health chamber? Medical booth? Get-better-box? I’m not sure what to call it.

Let’s take a closer look.

Once a person enters the get-better-box, they are presented with a large touchscreen and various options, including an array of health-related apps, full-body scans, heart health testing, thyroid testing, blood pressure monitoring, weight management, diabetes screening, COVID-19 tests, and HIV screening. In many cases, users are presented with a diagnosis immediately. This may be accompanied by additional instructions or a prescription provided by one of Forward’s team of doctors.

Everything is handled by artificial intelligence, specifically a custom LLM which is ostensibly trained using medical research papers. This is the big question mark here. LLM technology is notoriously prone to “hallucinating”, i.e., providing false or misleading information. This is because LLM technology is not fundamentally designed for accuracy. Instead, it is designed to produce linguistic output (phrases, paragraphs, etc.) that are coherent. Nobody has yet figured out how to reliably make them do this without simply making things up. Thankfully, the $99/year service fee gives users access to Forward Health’s team of human doctors. It’s probably best to make use of them.

Look out for CarePods in a mall, gym, or office near you (if you live in San Francisco, New York, Chicago or Philadelphia).

Want to learn more? Check out Forward’s promo video below: