Technologies

I Finally Found an AI Health Coach Worth Listening To

Commentary: In a sea of AI noise, the Whoop band’s Coach has been an unlikely ally in helping me train smarter. And I didn’t have to go looking for it.

Just hearing the phrase «AI health coach» listed among the Whoop band’s features was enough to make me tune out. After testing many of these supposed coaches, taking their advice became somewhat meaningless. But Whoop’s take on this tired perk may have turned the tide for me.

I’ve spent two months testing the latest Whoop MG band, a screenless fitness tracker built for athletes and long-term performance, and I’m shocked at how much I’ve learned.

The chatbot doesn’t regurgitate generic wellness tips or wait for you to come to it with questions. Think of it as that little cartoon angel that pops up on your shoulder at exactly the right moment, except instead of moral guidance, it’s flagging that your heart rate data suggests you should probably skip the HIIT class tomorrow.

It wasn’t just surfacing metrics. It was helping me understand what to do with them.

AI health coaches are the hot buzzword of the season among wellness enthusiasts. Over the last year, I’ve tested different versions from Google, Apple, Oura, Garmin, and Meta. On paper, most AI health coaches promise to contextualize the years’ worth of biometric data from your wearable device and turn it into personalized guidance.

In reality, most require you to go looking for it: Open the right tab and ask the right questions about your data, if you remember the feature exists in the first place.

Even when you do use AI health coaches as intended, they still offer mostly generic wellness advice (with the added worry about potentially handing off your data to train future models). At that point, it doesn’t feel much different from going straight to ChatGPT or Claude, just with your biometrics layered on top.

If you’re already using a Whoop band, you’ve likely made that call about the risk to your information. The company says it uses anonymized, aggregated data to improve its platform and doesn’t sell your data to advertisers. The subscription, which ranges from $199 to $359 per year, is what you’re really paying for, and the AI coach is included. Though handing over your health data isn’t a small decision.
As I explored in my piece on AI health coaches, my biggest concern going in was data privacy. We’ve become so desensitized to clicking «agree» on data disclosures that most of us aren’t even sure what we’re signing away anymore. The language is often intentionally vague, and much of this data falls outside HIPAA protections, meaning it can legally be repurposed in ways you never intended. If you’re concerned about privacy, read the fine print before you commit. From there, opt out of having your data used to train future models when possible, or skip the AI features entirely. In my case, the benefit still outweighs the risk (and testing them is part of my job), but I approach with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Like most apps, it has a dedicated coach button at the bottom of the nav bar that you can summon on demand. But this one finds me.

Two days before my period (which I’d genuinely forgotten was coming), the Whoop coach flagged that workouts might feel harder due to hormonal changes and suggested scaling back. Call it suggestive reasoning or newfound body awareness, but workouts truly did feel harder that week.

During my regular 3-mile loop, my metrics showed signs of strain. My heart rate was higher than usual, my recovery was lower, and my running index came back «very good» instead of the «elite» level I’d hit on previous days. The next day, it didn’t just suggest a generic «rest day.» Instead, the coach pulled workouts already in my rotation and tailored them to my recovery, down to the number of minutes and heart rate zone targets.

The Whoop band flagged that my all-out efforts hit differently, too. After crushing a PR (personal record), the AI coach surfaced a warning not to push into the peak heart rate zone more than once a week.

As a casual athlete with chronic imposter syndrome, I’m usually beating myself up for not pushing myself to work out hard five days a week. Instead of praising me for being a martyr, it was saying the opposite. I was skeptical enough to verify it outside the app, and sure enough, sustained effort at peak heart rate can increase injury risk if you’re not baking in recovery time.

This insight has forced me to rethink my all-or-nothing approach to training, where every workout had to be max effort to count. It also led me to put more trust in the AI coach.

That trust got tested when I logged a hike carrying my 40-pound toddler, and my strain score didn’t reflect the effort. The band has no altimeter and no way to account for extra weight. When I flagged it, the coach couldn’t retroactively fix the score, but it explained that my elevated heart rate had already partially signaled the added effort. Not a perfect answer, but more than I’d have gotten staring at a number with no context.

The same logic applies to sleep. The Whoop coach adjusts your recommended bedtime dynamically based on strain, sleep debt and recent patterns. As bedtime approaches, the coach surfaces a reminder on my lock screen about my optimal bedtime window: «If you want to stay in the green recovery zone tomorrow, aim for 11:40 p.m.»

And while it might not be enough to will me off the couch and into bed, the AI coach has stopped me from blowing too far past midnight. It feels less like a nagging parent and more like, «I’m trusting you to make the right choices for your body.»

That’s ultimately what sets the Whoop band’s AI coach apart. It’s the closest thing to an actual coach I’ve tested because it meets you where you are. It shows up at the right moment, connects the dots and gives you something actionable without asking anything extra from you.

While most AI health tools still feel like dashboards with a slapped-on chatbot, this one is the first to feels like it’s truly coaching. Now it just needs to give me the same type of coaching at the gym or at the track while I’m doing the actual workout. Then I’d be all in.

Technologies

Sam Altman’s World Initiative Expands Human Verification to Tinder and Beyond

Sam Altman’s World initiative expands its human verification technology, starting with a global rollout on Tinder and introducing new features like Concert Kit to combat scalpers and deepfakes.

At a popular spot near the San Francisco waterfront, Sam Altman’s verification project World marked its latest phase and ambitious growth. The initiative begins by partnering with Tinder.

Tools for Humanity (TFH), the firm driving the World project, revealed on Friday that it will embed its verification technology into dating platforms, event ticketing networks, corporate entities, email services, and various other sectors of daily life.

«The world is approaching incredibly advanced AI, which is accomplishing remarkable things,» Altman noted while addressing a full room at The Midway. «However, we are moving toward an era where AI-generated content will surpass human-created material,» he continued. «I am certain many of you [have experienced] moments where you question, ‘Am I communicating with an AI or a real person, or what is the ratio, and how can I verify?’»

World (previously known as Worldcoin) sets itself apart from other identity verification services by enabling the confirmation that a genuine, living individual is accessing a digital platform while maintaining their privacy. This relies on sophisticated cryptographic methods (specifically, «zero-knowledge proof-based authentication»). The result: The organization is developing what it terms «proof of human» solutions, which are systems designed to confirm human presence in an environment increasingly populated by AI agents and automated bots.

Its primary verification instrument is a spherical device named the Orb, which captures a user’s eye patterns to generate a distinct, anonymous cryptographic code (referred to as a verified World ID). This code can then be utilized to access World’s services, though individuals may also use the World application without possessing an Orb.

Altman’s speech on Friday was concise (TFH’s co-founder and CEO, Alex Blania, was missing due to unexpected hand surgery, according to Altman). He subsequently passed the presentation to World’s chief product officer, Tiago Sada, and his colleagues.

Sada detailed that World is introducing the latest iteration of its application (the previous release was unveiled during a December gathering), alongside numerous new technology integrations.

World has been working for a while to introduce a verification system for dating applications — particularly Tinder. Last year, Tinder initiated a World ID trial program in Japan. This trial reportedly succeeded, prompting World to announce that Tinder would roll out its verification integration across global markets, including the U.S. The system adds a World ID badge to the profiles of users who complete its verification steps, confirming their authenticity as real individuals.

World is also targeting the entertainment sector with a new feature called Concert Kit, allowing musicians to set aside specific ticket quantities for World ID-verified attendees. This aims to protect fans from scalpers who frequently employ automated ticket-purchasing bots to secure seats. Concert Kit works with major ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster and Eventbrite, and the company is highlighting it through collaborations with 30 Seconds to Mars and Bruno Mars — both of whom intend to utilize it for their upcoming tours.

The gathering featured numerous additional announcements, including those focused on corporate clients. A Zoom/World ID verification integration aims to counter a perceived deepfake risk in business calls, and a Docusign partnership is designed to ensure

Technologies

From Acquisition Talks to Rivals: How Stripe and Airwallex’s Paths Diverged

Once on the verge of a $1.2 billion acquisition by Stripe, Airwallex founder Jack Zhang rejected the deal to pursue a long-term vision, now positioning the company as a formidable rival in the global payments infrastructure space.

Jack Zhang, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who had been leading his startup for three and a half years, found himself in a pivotal meeting with Michael Moritz, a prominent investor from Sequoia Capital. Invited to Moritz’s San Francisco residence, which offered stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Zhang was presented with an offer: Stripe intended to acquire Airwallex for $1.2 billion. At that moment, Airwallex was generating approximately $2 million in annualized revenue, making the valuation seem incredibly lucrative. Moritz emphasized that Patrick Collison, Stripe’s founder, was a visionary leader, suggesting the acquisition could lead to extraordinary growth. Zhang spent two weeks in San Francisco grappling with the decision, eventually agreeing to the deal.

Yet, he soon flew back to Australia, nearly 8,000 miles away. Reflecting on the decision, Zhang explained, ‘I had to delve into my core motivations for building Airwallex. I was only three and a half years into the venture, which had grown exponentially in 2018. I had just begun to experience the thrill of entrepreneurship, which is what I had always dreamed of.’

Two of his co-founders opposed the acquisition, which influenced his choice. However, Zhang cited a clearer moment of clarity when he looked at the whiteboard in his office. The unfinished vision remained: to create financial infrastructure enabling businesses to operate globally as if they were local entities.

This decision appears increasingly justified. Airwallex now reports over $1.3 billion in annualized revenue, growing 85% annually, and processes nearly $300 billion in transaction volume. Zhang attributes this success to the deliberate challenges they faced.

Zhang’s journey began in Qingdao, China, and he moved to Melbourne at 15 with minimal English, living with a host family. After his family’s financial struggles, he worked multiple jobs to fund his computer science degree at the University of Melbourne, including bartending, dishwashing, gas station shifts, and farm work. He later worked in trading code development at an Australian investment bank, a role that paid well but lacked personal fulfillment.

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Before founding Airwallex, Zhang launched approximately 10 ventures, including a magazine at 14, a real estate development firm, import-export businesses dealing in wine and olive oil between Australia and Asia, textiles in the opposite direction, and a burger chain.

The concept for Airwallex emerged while Zhang ran a Melbourne coffee shop. When attempting to pay suppliers in Brazil, Indonesia, and Guatemala, co-founder Max Li observed payments vanishing into correspondent banking systems, often flagged or frozen by U.S. intermediary banks enforcing OFAC sanctions. ‘This prompted me to investigate correspondent banking and SWIFT systems to build our own global money movement network,’ Zhang noted.

That vision has scaled significantly. Airwallex now holds nearly 90 financial licenses across 50 markets, far exceeding Stripe’s estimated half. Acquiring these licenses required immense effort; in Japan, it took seven years. In some emerging markets, the company acquired shell companies with outdated licenses and rebuilt their technology from scratch.

‘You can’t just vibe-code an integration with Mexico’s central bank,’ Zhang remarked. ‘Access requires a secure room and biometric scans.’ These licenses are not merely regulatory formalities. In Japan, for example, Stripe and Square must transfer funds immediately to merchants’ bank accounts, whereas Airwallex, holding a fund transfer operator license, retains funds within its ecosystem. This allows customers to issue bank accounts, cards, and spend locally without funds leaving the platform.

The foreign exchange advantages are significant. A U.S. merchant settling transactions in Australian dollars avoids the 2% to 3% conversion fees typically charged by processors like Stripe to move funds back to U.S. dollars. Instead, they can use local balances to pay vendors, manage payroll, and cover digital marketing at interbank rates.

‘You no longer operate like a traditional U.S. company,’ Zhang explained. ‘You function as a global entity without the need to physically establish offices worldwide.’ This strategic approach, which Zhang calls the ‘path of maximum resistance,’ has created competitive barriers. ‘It took us six and a half years to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue,’ Zhang stated. ‘But after that, it took just over three years to hit a billion.’ The competitive logic, in his telling, is clear.

Technologies

App Store Experiences a Resurgence, With AI as a Potential Catalyst

Contrary to predictions that AI would render mobile apps obsolete, new app launches are surging, with iOS seeing an 80% year-over-year increase in Q1 2026, potentially driven by AI lowering development barriers.

The narrative that artificial intelligence would spell the end for mobile applications appears to be incorrect, as the volume of newly launched apps is experiencing a significant surge.

Data from analytics firm Appfigures reveals that global app deployments during the initial three months of 2026 increased by 60% compared to the same period last year, spanning both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. When isolating the iOS ecosystem, this growth rate climbed to an impressive 80%. Early data for April 2026 shows a staggering 104% jump in total app releases across both platforms year-over-year, with iOS seeing an 89% rise.

Echoing this trend, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Greg «Joz» Joswiak, recently remarked in an interview that predictions regarding the demise of the App Store in the era of artificial intelligence «may have been greatly exaggerated.»

These statistics surface amidst widespread speculation that the proliferation of AI chatbots and autonomous agents might cause users to abandon traditional applications. This perspective has been voiced by industry figures such as Nothing CEO Carl Pei, who is currently developing a smartphone tailored for the AI epoch. Furthermore, The New York Times previously highlighted the potential for emerging computing forms, including smart eyewear, ambient devices, and AI-enhanced watches, to surpass smartphones.

In a notable development, OpenAI is reportedly collaborating with renowned Apple designer Jony Ive on a new AI-focused hardware product.

Conversely, an alternative theory suggests that artificial intelligence is lowering the barrier to entry for app development, potentially triggering a renaissance for the App Store. This emerging wave could be spearheaded by innovators with creative concepts but lacking traditional coding expertise.

According to Appfigures’ analytics, specific app categories are experiencing heightened development activity.

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While mobile gaming continues to dominate the landscape for new app deployments globally in Q1 2026, mirroring previous trends, «productivity» tools have successfully entered the top five this year. The «utilities» sector has climbed to the second position, while «lifestyle» applications have advanced from fifth to third place last year. Completing the top five are «health and fitness» applications.