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

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal

Technologies

Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after glitch allowed some vehicles to ‘drive into standing water’

Waymo issued a voluntary recall of about 3,800 of its robotaxis to fix software issues that could allow them to drive into flooded roadways.

Waymo is recalling about 3,800 robotaxis in the U.S. to fix software issues that could allow them to “drive onto a flooded roadway,” according to a letter on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
The voluntary recall is for Waymo vehicles that use the company’s fifth and sixth generation automated driving systems (or ADS), the U.S. auto safety regulator said in the letter posted Tuesday.
Waymo autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, were seen on camera driving onto a flooded street and stalling, requiring other drivers to navigate around them. It’s the latest example of a safety-related issue for the Alphabet-owned AV unit that’s rapidly bolstering its fleet of vehicles and entering new U.S. markets.
Waymo has drawn criticism for its vehicles failing to yield to school buses in Austin, and for the performance of its vehicles during widespread power outages in San Francisco in December, when robotaxis halted in traffic, causing gridlock.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s “identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways,” and opted to file a “voluntary software recall” with the NHTSA.
“Waymo provides over half a million trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments across the U.S., and safety is our primary priority,” the company said.
Waymo added that it’s working on “additional software safeguards” and has put “mitigations” in place, limiting where its robotaxis operate during extreme weather, so that they avoid “areas where flash flooding might occur” in periods of intense rain.
WATCH: Waymo launches new autonomous system in Chinese-made vehicle

Technologies

Qualcomm tumbles 13% as semiconductor stocks retreat from historic AI-fueled surge

Semiconductor equities reversed sharply after a broad AI-driven advance, with Qualcomm suffering its worst day since 2020 amid inflation concerns and rising oil prices.

Semiconductor stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, reversing course after an extensive rally that had expanded the artificial intelligence investment theme well past Nvidia and driven the industry to unprecedented levels.

Qualcomm plunged 13% and was on track for its steepest single-day decline since 2020. Intel shed 8%, while On Semiconductor and Skyworks Solutions each lost more than 6%. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which benchmarks the overall sector, fell 5%.

The sell-off came after a key gauge of consumer prices came in above forecasts, and as conflict in Iran pushed crude oil higher—prompting investors to shift away from riskier assets.

The preceding advance had widened the AI opportunity set beyond longtime industry leader Nvidia, which for much of the past several years had largely carried the market to new peaks on its own.

Explosive appetite for central processing units, along with the graphics processing units that power large language models, has sent chipmakers to all-time highs.

Market participants are wagering that the shift from AI model training to autonomous agents will lift demand for additional AI hardware. Among the beneficiaries are memory chip producers, which are raising prices as supply remains tight.

Micron Technology slid 6%, and Sandisk cratered 8%. Sandisk’s stock has surged more than six times over since January.