OpenAI has launched a new ChatGPT Health feature in the United States, allowing users to receive more tailored responses by sharing medical records and data from health and fitness apps. The move marks a further step by consumer AI into healthcare-adjacent territory, drawing both interest and caution.
The tool allows users to upload medical records and connect apps such as Apple Health, Peloton and MyFitnessPal, which are then analysed to provide personalised answers to health questions. OpenAI has stressed that the feature is not designed to replace doctors. The company said it was not intended for “diagnosis or treatment”, describing the tool as a way to support users rather than provide clinical care.
OpenAI said ChatGPT Health had “enhanced privacy to protect sensitive data” and confirmed that health-related conversations would be stored separately and not used to train its AI models.
According to OpenAI, more than 230 million people ask its chatbot questions about their health and wellbeing every week. That level of engagement has heightened scrutiny over how sensitive information is handled.
Andrew Crawford of the Center for Democracy and Technology said it was “crucial” to maintain “airtight” safeguards around users’ health information. “Health data is some of the most sensitive information people can share and it must be protected,” he said.
Crawford also warned that as AI firms pursue personalisation, commercial incentives could create pressure to blur boundaries. “Especially as OpenAI moves to explore advertising as a business model, it’s crucial that separation between this sort of health data and memories that ChatGPT captures from other conversations is airtight,” he said.
Max Sinclair, chief executive of AI marketing platform Azoma, described the launch as a “watershed moment” that could “reshape both patient care and retail”, noting growing competition from rival systems such as Google’s Gemini.
ChatGPT Health is currently available only to a small group of early US users. It has not launched in the UK, Switzerland or the European Economic Area, where stricter data protection rules apply.