Health technology booths at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased gadgets that promise to bring medical-style analysis closer to everyday life, including devices marketed as tools for heart health tracking, hormone monitoring and perimenopause symptom insight. At the same time, experts speaking during the show said consumers may face both performance gaps and privacy risks as AI-enabled products spread, even as federal oversight for parts of the wellness market shifts.
Among the products on display, one smart scale was promoted as a way to support a healthier lifestyle by scanning a user’s feet to track heart-health information. Another booth featured an egg-shaped hormone tracker that uses AI and connects to an app to help users figure out the best time to conceive, according to the CES coverage.
Medical and technology experts said accuracy can be a concern with consumer AI tools, particularly when products present results as if they were equivalent to clinical care. Marschall Runge, a professor of medical science at the University of Michigan, said AI can help analyze medical imaging and streamline doctors’ schedules, but he warned that it can also promote biases and “hallucinate,” providing incorrect information presented as fact.
At CES, privacy concerns also drew scrutiny, especially around what happens to sensitive data collected by consumer devices. Cindy Cohn, executive director of the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, urged consumers not to assume the technology is the same as “a well-resourced, thoughtful, research-driven medical professional,” and she warned that privacy protections like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act do not cover information collected by consumer devices.
Cohn said companies could be using data collected by their products to train their AI models or selling that information to other businesses. She added that with many gadgets shown at CES, it can be hard to determine where information goes, describing the need to dig through fine print and saying it is not “fair or right” for people who might rely on the products.
Alongside the warnings from experts and advocates, the federal regulatory backdrop shifted during the show. The Food and Drug Administration announced at CES that it would relax regulations for “low-risk” general wellness products such as heart monitors and wheelchairs, a move tied to efforts described in the coverage as reducing barriers for AI innovation. The White House also repealed a prior executive order that had established guardrails around AI, and the Department of Health and Human Services outlined a strategy to expand AI usage, according to the CES report.
Women’s health and under-researched conditions were a focal point for several demonstrations, organizers and speakers said, with some products targeting areas that advocates say have historically received less study. The report noted that women were excluded from clinical trials before 1993 and said there is still limited research in areas like menopause. Amy Divaraniya, founder and CEO of the women’s health company Oova, said in a session that “yet we know nothing about it” regarding menopause, adding that while not every woman will have a baby, all women go through menopause.
One device called Peri was promoted as a way to better understand perimenopause, the transitional phase before menopause. The wearable monitors hot flashes and night sweats and provides the information through an app, according to the coverage.
Other exhibitors aimed their AI tools at accessibility, particularly for people living where doctors are scarce. The free, medicine-focused AI chatbot called 0xmd was described as helping people ask questions about medicine, upload photos of a mole or rash, and translate doctors’ notes into easier-to-understand language, as said by Allen Au, its founder and architect. Au said “At the end of the day, I don’t think we will replace doctors,” but that the tool can provide “a second opinion,” according to the report.
The CES coverage also said OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, presented as similar in concept to other AI health platforms. Cohn remained skeptical of consumer tech that markets itself as health guidance, saying such tools can help people prepare better questions for medical professionals but should not be treated as a substitute. She said, “People need to remember that these are just tools; they’re not oracles who are delivering truths,” according to her remarks.