US Public Health Authorities to Test AI Models from OpenAI and Anthropic

Public health departments across the United States are preparing to experiment with generative artificial intelligence tools as part of a pilot program coordinated by several major players in technology and healthcare. According to AI News Health, the initiative brings together the Coalition for Health AI alongside OpenAI, Anthropic, and consulting firm Accenture.

What is the PULSE program

The project, called the Public Health Use Case and Learning Scaling Engine—known by the acronym PULSE—will support pilot tests across ten different jurisdictions in the US. These span state, local, tribal, and territorial levels, offering a varied picture of how AI systems perform across different administrative and demographic contexts.

According to AI News Health, the program's stated goal is to generate "practical lessons" about using generative AI in the day-to-day operations of public health departments. This framing suggests the focus is not on immediate large-scale deployment, but rather on a controlled phase of evaluation and testing.

Why the involvement of major AI players matters

The direct participation of OpenAI and Anthropic—two of the leading companies in large language model development—reflects the tech industry's growing interest in the public health sector. At the same time, the involvement of Accenture, a company with extensive experience in consulting and technology implementation for government institutions, suggests the program also has an operational dimension, not merely an experimental one.

The Coalition for Health AI, the organization coordinating the initiative, aims, according to information cited by AI News Health, to develop evaluation frameworks and standards for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. The tests conducted through PULSE could help establish such benchmarks—relevant not only for the US, but also for other public health systems internationally.

Next steps

Full technical details on exactly how participating jurisdictions will be selected, as well as the testing timeline, have not yet been fully disclosed. As the program moves forward, it remains to be seen what conclusions will emerge from these pilots and how they might shape future policies on AI adoption within US public health institutions.