A first look at health apps on the new VR headset

Apple Vision Pro, the company’s most important new product in a decade, promises to envelop consumers in an immersive world of interactive content while employing clever technologies to make the device more usable and less alienating than virtual reality headsets that have come before it.

Marketing for Vision Pro has focused on the $3,499, 1.3-pound helmet’s potential for watching video, making work calls, viewing family photos, and other casual uses. But as with its other devices, Apple is eager to explore Vision Pro’s health potential as well. The company connected STAT with researchers from Cedars-Sinai and Boston Children’s Hospital who have developed applications that transform the headset into an AI powered chatbot that offers otherworldly therapy sessions or a virtual guide that can train nurses by simulating the chaos of a busy hospital.

VRx Health, founded by researchers from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, is today launching Xaia, a mental health chatbot app that uses an artificial intelligence model to generate human-like responses to users’ statements. A therapeutic chatbot isn’t a new idea, but Xaia takes advantage of Vision Pro’s ability to convincingly blend digital content with an image of the world around users.