Dose of uncertainty: Experts wary of AI health gadgets at CES
[January 08, 2026]
By JESSICA HILL
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade
show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier
lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an
egg-shaped hormone tracker uses AI to help you figure out the best time
to conceive.
Tech and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like
these and warn of data privacy issues — especially as the federal
government eases up on regulation.
The Food and Drug Administration announced during the show in Las Vegas
that it will relax regulations on “low-risk” general wellness products
such as heart monitors and wheelchairs. It's the latest step President
Donald Trump's administration has taken to remove barriers for AI
innovation and use. The White House repealed former President Joe
Biden's executive order establishing guardrails around AI, and last
month, the Department of Health and Human Services outlined its strategy
to expand its use of AI.
Booths at the conference showcased new tech designed to help people
living in rural areas with their health care needs amid doctor
shortages, boost research into women’s health and make life easier for
people with disabilities.
AI technologies have benefits in the over $4.3 trillion health care
industry, according to Marschall Runge, professor of medical science at
the University of Michigan. They’re good at analyzing medical imaging
and can help streamline doctors’ busy schedules, but they can also
promote biases and “hallucinate,” providing incorrect information stated
as fact.
“I would urge people not to think that the technology is the same as a
well-resourced, thoughtful, research-driven medical professional,” said
Cindy Cohn, executive director of the digital rights group Electronic
Frontier Foundation.
Privacy protections like the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act do not cover information collected by consumer
devices, and the companies could be using the data to train their AI
mode ls, or selling it to other businesses, Cohn said.
With a lot of the gadgets at CES, it’s difficult to find out where your
information is going, Cohn said.
“You have to dig down through the fine print to try to figure that out,
and I just don’t think that’s fair or right for the people who might
rely on it,” she said.
But the creators of the products say their innovations fill in health
care gaps, and they maintain they protect their customers’ privacy.
Sylvia Kang, founder and CEO of Mira, said she created the egg-shaped
hormone tracker because many of her friends were trying to conceive and
realized they had no knowledge of their hormonal health. To use the
“world’s mini hormone lab,” you dip a wand in urine, insert the wand
into the monitor and look at the results on the app.
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A Peri device is seen on display during the CES tech show Wednesday,
Jan. 7, 2026, in Las Vegas.
 Kang said her company uses AI to
analyze female hormone data and has one of the world’s biggest
hormonal health banks. The data is stored on the cloud and is not
shared with anyone, Kang said.
“There was no such thing before,” Kang said of her
$250 product.
Many gadgets at CES focused on women’s health, which has been
historically under-researched and underfunded. Before 1993, women
were excluded from clinical trials, and there still is little
research on areas like menopause.
While not every woman will have a baby, all women go through
menopause, and “yet we know nothing about it,” said Amy Divaraniya,
founder and CEO of the women’s health company Oova, during a
session.
One gadget called Peri aims to better understand perimenopause — the
transitional phase before menopause. The wearable device monitors
hot flashes and night sweats and provides the data via an app.
Improving accessibility to health care
Other products at CES were promoted as a way to increase
accessibility to health information. The free medicine-focused AI
chatbot called 0xmd helps improve access to medical information in
areas with doctor shortages and provides a cost-effective
alternative, said its founder and architect Allen Au. People can ask
the chatbot questions about medicine, upload photos of a mole or
rash, and submit their doctors’ notes for an easier-to-understand
translation, Au said.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think we will replace doctors,” but
it can give people a second opinion, Au said.
OpenAI announced on Wednesday its launch of ChatGPT Health, a
similar platform.
Cohn remains skeptical of consumer tech. She said they can help
prepare people to ask the right questions of their medical
professional, but they’re not going to be a substitute for a doctor.
“People need to remember that these are just tools; they’re not
oracles who are delivering truths,” she said.
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