Hippocratic AI, a startup with a generative artificial intelligence tool, launched out of stealth to announce the first Large Language Model (LLM) designed specifically for healthcare with a $50 million seed round co-led by venture capital heavyweights General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz.

Co-founded by Munjal Shah and Meenesh Bhimani MD, Hippocratic AI’s tool provides patients with non-diagnostic information, such as pre-operation instructions, and can explain medical bills or insurance procedures.

The system relies on an LLM approach that feeds into its natural language processing to recognize, summarize, translate, predict and generate text. The startup is also training its technology to reflect the “bedside manner” of a physician or nurse. Hippocratic doesn’t intend to replace a physician but offers generative AI to support roles and actors in the health care system.

The Palo Alto, CA-based company claimed its AI had passed more than 100 certifications in the healthcare industry and outperformed OpenAI’s most potent model, GPT-4, on the same tests.

Hippocratic AI was founded by a group of physicians, hospital administrators, Medicare professionals, and artificial intelligence researchers from El Camino Health, Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St. Louis, Stanford, UPenn, Google, and Nvidia.