Trump officials take aim at Coalition for Health AI, as Amazon drops out

Mario Aguilar covers technology in healthcare, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, wearables, telehealth, and digital therapeutics. His stories explore how technology is changing the practice of health care and the business and policy challenges of realizing the promise of technology. He is also co-author of the free bi-weekly STAT Health Tech newsletter. You can reach Mario on Signal at mariojoze.13.

The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to weaken a tech industry-funded group that seeks to help shape the nation’s use of artificial intelligence in health care.

The Coalition for Health AI, or CHAI, is made up of some of the nation’s biggest names in healthcare and technology, including Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and Mayo Clinic. But the administration is increasingly making clear that these industry giants will attempt to hobble startups and competition with excessive regulatory proposals, rather than act as responsible stewards of a technology that holds both potential and risks.

“We must not let the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) build a regulatory cartel,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on Marty Makary.

And as the Trump administration attacks CHAI, it’s clear that some key companies’ support for the group may be fraying.