Apple preps an AI-powered personal wellness coach

Apple preps an AI-powered personal wellness coach

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You won't need this guy if a AI on your Apple Watch can do the same job.
Photo: Cliff Booth/Pexels

Apple reportedly wants to use the power of artificial intelligence to create a virtual coach integrated into Apple Watch.

In addition, Apple’s Health app allegedly will get new features for those with vision problems, and to help users track their moods.

Apple Watch could be your gym teacher

Apple already builds multiple types of health and exercise aids into its devices. There’s a Health app on the iPhone that tracks steps taken and other metrics. And the Apple Watch offers many more wellness features.

Now, Cupertino plans to build further on those, according to an unconfirmed Tuesday report from Bloomberg.

“The new coaching service — codenamed Quartz — is designed to keep users motivated to exercise, improve eating habits and help them sleep better,” said the report. “The idea is to use AI and data from an Apple Watch to make suggestions and create coaching programs tailored to specific users.”

It will be a for-pay service that allegedly will launch in 2024, if it actually sees the light of day.

Apple plans a mood-tracker, too

The same Bloomberg report says Apple’s Health app will soon start letting users manage their vision problems, like nearsightedness. And the next update for the app supposedly will include a mood tracker, too.

“The initial version of the emotion tracker will let users log their mood, answer questions about their day and compare the results over time,” said the report.

In the long run, Apple wants its devices to be able to figure out a user’s mood on their own, possibly by listening to them talk and monitoring what they write. Apple supposedly will announce some of these new Health initiatives at its Worldwide Developers Conference this June.