RFK Jr. Proclaims $2 Million Prize for Anybody Who Can Assist Him Cram AI Into the U.S. Healthcare System

After shedding hundreds of HHS staff, firing America’s prime vaccine specialists, scaring individuals away from utilizing Tylenol, and hiring a CDC director who has no medical coaching in any way, well being czar Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is casting about for brand new methods to “enhance” America’s healthcare system. The answer he’s provide you with? Determine how AI could make every part higher.

Kennedy doesn’t appear to understand how AI could make healthcare higher, which might be why his company is holding a contest that can give cash to whoever can determine it out. On Tuesday, the Division of Well being and Human Providers announced that it will be holding what it calls the Caregiving Synthetic Intelligence Prize Competitors. The purpose of the competitors is to “fund and acknowledge innovators” who develop instruments that may “help caregivers” (i.e., healthcare staff that handle aged and disabled Individuals), and help “employers by enhancing effectivity, scheduling, and coaching within the caregiving workforce.” The winner of the competitors will get a $2 million prize, the federal government has mentioned.

“America’s caregivers carry our nation’s most weak on their shoulders, and so they do it with a power and devotion that not often will get the popularity it deserves,” mentioned Kennedy in a ready assertion. “With the Caregiver AI Problem, we’re advancing the targets of the Make America Wholesome Once more Technique Report by mobilizing innovation to lighten caregivers’ load and guarantee each household has the help they should look after the individuals they love.”

AI has proven some promising purposes on the earth of healthcare (it has shown some promise in automating the early detection of most cancers, as an example). Nonetheless, it’s unclear what, precisely HHS is trying to produce right here. The language on the web site is fairly imprecise, stating merely that successful “options will empower caregivers, defend dignity, and increase entry to high-quality care at residence.” Gizmodo reached out to HHS for extra details about its competitors.

Whereas leaning into automation to make American healthcare higher, Kennedy additionally appeared to take steps to advance his personal distinctive agenda inside the federal well being forms. This week, it was reported that the federal government had employed a key determine from his MAHA motion, Calley Means. It was reported that Means, who has been vital of extremely processed meals, and who owns his own health company, had been employed as a senior advisor at HHS.

Kennedy was additionally within the information this week as a result of the web has been collectively laughing at the memoir put out by Olivia Nuzzi, the journalist who admitted to a “digital” tryst with Kennedy final 12 months. Nuzzi was positioned on go away from New York journal in September of final 12 months, after admitting to having the supposed affair whereas protecting Kennedy as a politician. She later left the journal, and is now the West Coast editor of Self-importance Truthful.