>I don't get it. Babylon is just another provider. There's not much difference between Babylon and other GP providers - they get your data if you're their patie

>I don't get it. Babylon is just another provider. There's not much difference between Babylon and other GP providers - they get your data if you're their patient and not otherwise. They're subjected to the same rules as other GPs. Babylon is unlike any other providers; it is an AI & Data first, app-based subscription model with a mix of state funded services. It's aim is to acquire more data in order to train models. The overwhelming majority of traditional GP's are primarily focused on patient first policy ─ they are usually non-profit with scant resources and a poor to non-existent IT strategy. To normalise these new models by trivialising differences between traditional services (as flawed, as they might be) would only serve to marginalise existing practices and it is the first step towards introducing scope-creep by politicians, who have an unhealthy obsession with statistics, quick fixes and making Faustian pacts with the private sector. Babylon claims to go beyond any GP by being on par with human doctors and boasts of it's partnerships with Samsung and Tencent and counts DeepMind as one of it's investors. Just like any startup looking to disrupt, the platform is cloud-based and hosted on AWS[1]. It records every interaction, including video ─ which is retained for later review. It is growing at an exponential rate, despite a limited presence in London. The patient database reveals that it caters to a very specific demographic across varied and different parts of the city i.e. 83% of patients are aged between 20 to 39 years. While it is still in it's infancy, it has already been involved in legal tussles and has been accused of dubious practices[2][3]. There is no visibility on algorithms, models and related datasets nor is there any indication of AI ethics being in place. There is also the issue of the CEO being linked to a white elephant project before his current fast-tracked foray into digital healthcare, which was probably rubber-stamped by officials in Whitehall. Although, it is undeniable that the NHS is overburdened and could do with some help to ease the pressure, but Babylon seems to be doing the exact opposite by applying the 'moving fast-breaking things' ethos inside an institution, which is already broken and moving slow. I have already linked the Wired article, which discusses some of the topics above in-depth, other facts are supported by the FT article (paywall) and Forbes, which are reasonably reputable sources in my opinion. https://www.ft.com/content/19dc6b7e-8529-11e8-96dd-fa565ec55929 https://www.ft.com/content/19dc6b7e-8529-11e8-96dd-fa565ec55... https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/12/17/this-health-startup-won-big-government-dealsbut-inside-doctors-flagged-problems/#69448ba8eabb https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/12/17/this-heal... [1] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/startups/how-babylon-health-builds-an-ai-doctor-app-and-scales-globally-with-aws/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/startups/how-babylon-health-bui... [2] https://www.digitalhealth.net/2017/12/babylon-healthcare-cqc/ https://www.digitalhealth.net/2017/12/babylon-healthcare-cqc... [3] https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/2019/04/12/babylon-health-ai-test-gp-at-hand/ https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/2019/04/12/babyl...