What WWDC’s artificial intelligence bent could mean for medical data privacy
WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference during which it shows off its latest and greatest software innovations, is coming on June 10. Of course, it looks like WWDC 2024’s main focus is going to be AI, if the rumours (and a Tweet from Apple exec Greg Joswiak, who claims the conference will be “Absolutely Incredible!”) are anything to go by. This could mean big changes in the way we use our best iPhones, Macbooks, iPads and, of course, Apple Watches.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch SE 2 are positioned #1 and #2 on our best Apple Watches guide for a few reasons, and one of those is the excellence of the watchOS operating system. Another is its use of your health information, both on watch and on other devices, to make positive changes and implement safeguards in your life.
For example, you can load the Health app with all your medical records and automatically share them with your doctor or pharmacy. You can use your phone or watch to generate and display a Medical ID, so first responders can access critical medical information if you’re unable to unlock your phone. Crash Detection will alert emergency services (or an emergency contact) if you’re in a car or bicycle accident, while Fall Detection can do the same if you’re more vulnerable and have taken a tumble.
All the while, Apple is collecting all the usual information that all the best fitness trackers collect about our health, such as heart rate information, sleep information, blood oxygen, menstrual cycle tracking, location, step count, exercise statistics, and loads more, feeding back into the main Health app. Like our medical records, this is potentially sensitive information, especially when it comes to metrics like cycle tracking. Thankfully, Apple takes its privacy obligations seriously, emphasizing its commitment to encrypting such information end-to-end, so even Apple can’t read it.
However, it must take care to do the same when artificial intelligence is inserted into the mix. AI chatbots like ChatGPT are known as Large Language Models, or LLMs, and are trained on a large amount of content scraped from the internet with the intention of regurgitating the right information to you based on prompts.
