AI Just Got A Green Light To Prescribe Drugs — At Least In One State

One state just let artificial intelligence step into a role long reserved for doctors.

Utah authorized Nolla Health’s AI to issue first-time acne prescriptions starting Monday, the first approval of its kind in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. The state previously let another startup use AI to approve prescription refills despite criticism from physicians.

“This makes Nolla the first ever end-to-end AI doctor,” Luis Wenus, founder of Nolla Health, said in a Monday post on X demonstrating the product.

The AI tool builds a personalized treatment plan and prescribes acne medication based on a facial scan, Wenus explained in the demonstration video.

“Until now, a licensed clinician signed every single prescription before it went out,” Wenus said in the video. “Our AI can now make that prescribing decision itself.”

Wenus is “building personal doctors,” according to his X profile page. Before Nolla, he worked for Worldcoin, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s project that scans people’s eyes to prove they are human and pays them in cryptocurrency tokens.

Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy (OAIP) and Division of Professional Licensing co-signed an agreement with Nolla Health that permits the firm’s AI to write first-time prescriptions to treat topical acne, according to the state’s authorized-pilots page. The AI service cannot prescribe isotretinoin (Accutane) or oral medications.

Nolla Health, the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, the Utah Division of Professional Licensing, the Utah Medical Association and the American Academy of Dermatology each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

Two physicians must approve every prescription during the AI’s initial, four-week stage, which covers at least 100 patients, Nolla’s agreement with OAIP states. Later stages of the pilot program shift to review after the fact and then to monthly checks of prescriptions..

The deal is part of Utah’s AI Learning Lab, a sandbox program that eases state rules to allow companies to test AI products with state supervision, according to OAIP and state code.

“Taking part in our AI sandbox does not mean the State of Utah has approved, endorsed, certified, or vouched for the product,” the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy states on its authorized-pilots page. The office clarified that the product is being conditionally tested and companies in the sandbox are still responsible for their actions under those agreements.

Congress has begun weighing liability for AI systems, while medical labs have moved to quickly use AI to diagnose patients.

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