JMIR Correspondent Tejas S Athni reports on the latest developments in the AI arms race in “ Beyond Kimi K3: Spillover Effects of Frontier AI Competition on Health Care ”. Chinese startup Moonshot AI’s release of Kimi K3 “rapidly narrow[s] the performance gap with US peer models,” signalling an acceleration in innovation. Athni argues that this increasing sophistication will benefit health care through competition-enhanced capability, customizability, and cost-effectiveness. “Health care systems stand to capture gains…even without developing the underlying foundation models themselves,” writes Athni.
Please cite as:
Athni TS. Beyond Kimi K3: Spillover Effects of Frontier AI Competition on Health Care.
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e10904
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e109041
DOI: 10.2196/109041
In his second feature article this week—“ Academic Medical Centers Partner with Industry for Co-Development of Clinical AI ”—Tejas S Athni analyzes the changing state of clinical AI development in the United States. While academic medical centers (medical school-affiliated and -integrated hospitals) have previously purchased ready-made AI products from technology vendors, writes Athni, they have begun to instead partner with the tech companies to develop the products from the ground up; an exchange where “AMCs contribute deidentified patient data, clinician expertise, and real-world testing environments, while industry firms provide AI models, cloud computing, and engineering expertise.” Athni discusses the major domains serviced by these products:ambient clinical documentation, patient-facing conversational AI, expertise clinical AI infrastructure, and precision medicine and diagnostics.
Athni TS. Academic Medical Centers Partner with Industry for Co-Development of Clinical AI.
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e108770
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e108770
DOI: 10.2196/108770
In " AI-Powered Robotics Are Personalizing Rehabilitation ", JMIR Correspondent Benedette Cuffari covers recent innovations changing how patients recovering from neurological injury or disease may receive rehabilitative medicine. While traditional rehabilitation is resource-intensive to the point of potential chronic undertreatment, writes Cuffari, rehabilitation robotics can help deliver rehabilitation at the intensity and frequency needed for recovery. Modern rehabilitation robotics under development have even begun to integrate sensors and AI technologies, which could allow them to “continuously learn from updated patient-specific data in real time to adapt the difficulty of movements while providing personalized feedback.” According to Cuffari, the cost of eventually implementing these devices in clinical practice could be offset by reduced health care costs from higher recovery rates.
Cuffari B. AI-Powered Robotics Are Personalizing Rehabilitation.
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e108878
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e108878
DOI: 10.2196/108878
Many Canadian physicians are eager to adopt AI scribe tools in order to help them save time and redirect attention to their patients, reports JMIR Correspondent Wendy Glauser in " AI Scribes Move Quickly Into Canadian Care Settings ". After the Auditor General of Ontario released a report finding various error outputs from the twenty scribes which had been approved for clinical practice, physicians pointed out that the report didn’t account for their human-in-the-loop workflows to catch and revise errors. Glauser speaks with physicians Henry Li, Bolu Ogunyemi, Nihal Haque, and Ian Pun on how they use these tools, navigating potential issues around security, safety, and ethics; many emphasize the importance of obtaining patient consent and potentially even avoiding cloud services for privacy.
Glauser W. AI Scribes Move Quickly Into Canadian Care Settings.
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e108859
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e108859
DOI: 10.2196/108859
About JMIR Publications News and Perspectives
JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research. The News and Perspectives section is the newest addition to its portfolio, established to bring the rigor and integrity of academic publishing to scientific journalism. The section features well-researched, expert-driven content from the Scientific News Editor, Kayleigh-Ann Clegg, PhD, and a network of specialist JMIR Publications Correspondents to keep the digital health community informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve.
About JMIR Publications
JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research and a champion of open science. With a focus on author advocacy and research amplification, JMIR Publications partners with researchers to advance their careers and maximize the impact of their work. As a technology organization with publishing at its core, we provide innovative tools and resources that go beyond traditional publishing, supporting researchers at every step of the dissemination process. Our portfolio features a range of peer-reviewed journals, including the renowned Journal of Medical Internet Research.
To find out more about JMIR Publications, visit jmirpublications.com or connect with them on Bluesky , X , LinkedIn , YouTube , Facebook , and Instagram .
Media Contact:
Dennis O’Brien, Vice President, Communications & Partnerships
JMIR Publications
communications@jmir.org
+1 416-583-2040
The content of this communication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited.
Journal of Medical Internet Research
News article
People
14-Aug-2026