OpenAI Acquires Torch For $100 Million To Boost ChatGPT's Medical Capabilities

OpenAI on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Torch, a year-old health-technology startup reportedly valued at approximately $100 million.

This acquisition will see the startup’s technology and its four-person founding team integrated into the recently launched ‘ChatGPT Health’ division.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ilya Abyzov, confirmed the news and write, "OpenAI has acquired Torch. The Torch team and I are joining OAI to help build ChatGPT Health into the best AI tool in the world for health and wellness."

OpenAi seconded the announcement adding, "We have acquired Torch, a healthcare startup that unifies lab results, medications, and visit recordings. Bringing this together with ChatGPT Health opens up a new way to understand and manage your health."

In a brief note on their website, Torch’s four founders — Ilya, James, Eugene, and Ryan — said their work was driven by a familiar frustration: even with more health data than ever like the hospital records, labs, wearables and consumer apps, patients often see only a slice of their information, while clinicians lack time to parse the growing flood of data.

Torch has then created a "medical memory for AI" a context engine that pulls together records from many sources to help people and clinicians see the full picture and avoid missing important signals. The acquisition lands shortly after OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT Health, a dedicated experience that lets users connect medical records and wellness apps for more tailored health-related assistance, with added privacy controls.

"We started Torch to build a medical memory for AI, unifying scattered records into a context engine that helps you see the full picture, connect the dots, and make sure nothing important gets lost in the noise again. Now, we’re joining OpenAI to realize that vision at a bigger scale than we could have ever achieved on our own," concluded the note.

Earlier this month, OpenAI for Healthcare was announced which included a set of products designed to help healthcare organisations deliver more consistent, high-quality care for patients, while supporting their HIPAA compliance requirements.

"ChatGPT for Healthcare is built to support the careful, evidence-based reasoning required in real patient care, while reducing administrative burden so teams can spend more time with patients. Organisations can bring clinicians, administrators, and researchers into a secure workspace with the controls they need to deploy AI securely and at scale," said OpenAI while introducing the feature.