Fitbit founders James Park and Eric Friedman announced the launch of a new AI startup called Luffu, aimed at helping families monitor health and maintain harmony at home. The idea is to develop a “smart family care system,” starting with an app and later expanding to hardware devices.
Two years after leaving Google, Park and Friedman are betting on AI to reduce the mental load of caring for loved ones. According to the latest report, about 63 million adults in the United States – nearly one in four – are family caregivers, which is 45% higher than ten years earlier.
What is Luffu and how does it work
Luffu uses artificial intelligence in the background to collect and organize family information, study everyday patterns, and detect notable changes so families can stay in sync and respond quickly to potential health issues.
“At Fitbit we focused on personal health – but after Fitbit, health became bigger for me than just thinking about myself. I was caring for my parents from different ends of the country, trying to piece together my mom’s medical care through various portals and providers, with a language barrier that made it hard to get full, timely context from her visits to the doctor. I didn’t want to constantly check, and she didn’t want to feel watched. Luffu is a product we wanted to have – to monitor our family’s health, know what has changed, and when to intervene – without being pushy.”
The Luffu user base is geared toward conveniently tracking key health aspects for the whole family: health status, nutrition, medications, symptoms, medical checkups, and doctor visits. Data can be entered by voice or text. The system proactively monitors changes and provides insights and warnings, for example during unusual vital signs or changes in sleep.
Users will be able to ask questions in plain language, asking about the family’s health, for example: “Is dad’s new diet affecting his blood pressure?” or “Did someone give the dog his meds?”
The team emphasizes that Luffu puts caregiving for loved ones at the center, reducing chaos in family life and helping all members stay connected to important changes.
“We designed Luffu to capture details as life unfolds, keep family members informed, and surface what matters at the right time – so caregiving for loved ones is more coordinated and less chaotic.”
Interested parties can leave their details to participate in a limited public beta.
The Luffu team is working on a solution that reduces the burden on caregivers and helps families notice changes in the health and well-being of loved ones more quickly.
