OpenAI and Anthropic double down on healthcare as AI race moves into medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) companies are making a major push into healthcare, betting that medicine could become the next big frontier for AI-powered tools.

Over the past few days, OpenAI and Anthropic have unveiled dedicated healthcare products aimed at very different audiences. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, a version of ChatGPT designed to help everyday users understand their medical information and manage their wellness. Anthropic, meanwhile, rolled out Claude for Healthcare, a set of tools built for hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and medical researchers.

These launches mark a clear shift; AI companies are no longer just building tools for writing emails or summarising documents. They are now embedding the technology deep inside healthcare.

Healthcare is already one of the most common reasons people use ChatGPT. According to OpenAI, more than 230 million people globally ask health and wellness questions on the platform every week, from understanding blood test results to managing diet. Now the company wants to turn that behaviour into a dedicated health platform. And it is backing that ambition with acquisitions.

OpenAI buys Torch to build ChatGPT Health

On January 13, OpenAI confirmed that it has acquired Torch, a healthcare startup founded in 2024, whose four-person team will now join OpenAI to build health and wellness features for ChatGPT.

Torch co-founder and CEO Ilya Abyzov said the team will work on turning ChatGPT Health into “the best AI tool in the world for health and wellness.”

OpenAI paid about $100 million in equity to acquire the startup, according to The Information. 

Torch was built as a system to bring together personal medical data from hospitals, laboratories, wearable devices and consumer health apps into a single platform.

“We designed Torch to be a unified medical memory for AI, bringing every bit of data about you from hospitals, labs, wearables, and consumer testing companies into one place,” Abyzov said.

The problem, he explained, is that health data today is scattered across multiple systems.

“AI can’t help you if your health data is scattered across four hospitals, two labs, seven apps and three web portals,” Torch said in a blog post.

A dedicated health space inside ChatGPT

The Torch acquisition comes just as OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT Health, a dedicated version of ChatGPT designed specifically for personal health and wellness.

Instead of mixing health conversations with regular chats, ChatGPT Health creates a separate space where users can store medical information and connect health apps.

Users can link data from apps such as Apple Health, MyFitnessPal and Function, and in the US, they can also connect medical records from hospitals and clinics.

The company claims that ChatGPT Health can help explain lab results in simple language, track patterns in sleep and fitness, summarise medical reports and prepare questions for doctor visits.

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Health is not meant to replace doctors. It does not provide diagnosis or treatment. Instead, it helps users “navigate everyday questions and understand patterns over time—not just moments of illness—so you can feel more informed and prepared for important medical conversations”. 

Since medical data is highly sensitive, OpenAI has built Health as a separate, encrypted system inside ChatGPT. The company claims that chats in Health are not used to train its foundation models. 

Anthropic takes the enterprise route

While OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health focuses on helping individuals, Anthropic is taking a different route: building tools for healthcare professionals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. 

Anthropic has launched Claude for Healthcare and expanded its Claude for Life Sciences platform, turning its assistant into a tool for handling healthcare administration and research.

According to the company, Claude can help with insurance approvals, claims and appeals, patient care coordination, clinical trial management and drug research.

One of Anthropic’s biggest moves is adding direct connections to trusted medical databases, including Medicare’s coverage database, global medical diagnosis codes, the US provider registry, PubMed’s research library and ClinicalTrials.gov.

This allows hospitals and insurers to search policies, research papers and clinical guidelines instantly, something that normally takes hours or days.

Why healthcare is so attractive to AI companies

Healthcare is one of the world’s largest industries, accounting for over $10 trillion in global spending every year. It is also one of the most complex.

Patient data is scattered across hospitals, labs, pharmacies, insurers, wearables and wellness apps. Doctors spend large parts of their day on paperwork. Drug companies face years of regulatory work before a new medicine reaches patients. Anthropic believes AI can significantly speed up those workflows.

AI systems can read millions of documents, find patterns, summarise information and automate repetitive tasks. Even small efficiency gains can save billions of dollars.

At the same time, healthcare is one of the most sensitive sectors AI can enter. Mistakes can have real-world consequences. Data breaches can destroy trust. Incorrect advice can be dangerous. That is why both OpenAI and Anthropic are emphasising privacy, security and human oversight.

OpenAI says ChatGPT Health was built in collaboration with more than 260 doctors across 60 countries. Anthropic says its healthcare products are designed to meet US health data protection rules.

If successful, AI could become as essential to healthcare as electronic medical records and digital imaging. And for OpenAI and Anthropic, healthcare may prove to be their biggest business opportunity yet.