Nvidia Introduces Virtual Nurses That Can Assist You Online For Only $9/Hour

Screenshots via Hippocratic AI

Feeling under the weather but can’t secure a doctor’s appointment? The future of healthcare might have you chatting with artificial intelligence in scrubs. Nvidia and Hippocratic AI are teaming up to deliver a workforce of virtual nurses powered by generative AI, aiming to ease the burden on the healthcare system and potentially bring down costs.

These AI nurses can conduct around-the-clock video consultations, offering medical advice and reporting back to your human doctor. They could also send out pre-surgery reminders and even post-discharge follow-ups.

They’re designed to be much cheaper than their human counterparts—tending to users for US$9 an hour as opposed to the US$90 expected with their human counterparts, according to Gizmodo. Aside from making health aid more accessible, such services could bridge the gap for the frontline shortage plaguing hospitals.

Patients can consult an assistant based on their needs or diagnoses, choosing from nurses trained in everything from stroke discharge to hypertension and nutrition, or selecting companions for daily check-ins or even loneliness. Each digital personnel, given either a direct or engaging communication style, is rated by “hundreds” of real nurses and physicians.

Nvidia’s role is that it provides the tech muscle behind these digital caregivers, with similar advanced AI avatar and cloud tools offered to other healthcare providers through its AI Enterprise platform.

“With generative AI, we have the opportunity to address some of the most pressing needs of the healthcare industry. We can help mitigate widespread staffing shortages and increase access to high-quality care—all while improving outcomes for patients,” explains Munjal Shah, cofounder and CEO of Hippocratic AI. “Nvidia’s technology stack is critical to achieving the conversational speed and fluidity necessary for patients to naturally build an emotional connection with Hippocratic’s Generative AI Healthcare Agents.”

With that, Hippocratic highlights that it doesn’t provide digital physicians as “we don’t believe generative AI is safe enough for diagnosis.” The message is clear: AI could be necessary for workforce relief and play a big role in keeping us healthy, but it can’t replace the human touch in medical care just yet.

[via Gizmodo, Popular Science, Nvidia, cover screenshot via Hippocratic AI]