AI Usage at a Glance
May 29, 2025
Creative GenPractice documented: MEDVi used a suite of generative AI tools to create nearly all of its website content, including page copy, product images, and marketing visuals. The company's own website acknowledges that text, images, and other media on the site "may be generated or enhanced using artificial intelligence technologies." This approach allowed one person to build and launch the entire website in roughly two months starting in 2024.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 2, 2026
Customer SvcPractice documented: MEDVi deployed an AI chatbot to handle all customer service for a claimed patient base of 500,000+ people — a function performed by zero dedicated human support staff. The chatbot was documented giving patients incorrect drug prices and inventing product lines that MEDVi does not offer. When patients demanded a human, calls were forwarded to the founder's personal phone.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 2, 2026
ProductivityPractice documented: MEDVi used AI tools to replace nearly every business function that a company of its size would normally staff humans to perform — including writing all software code, designing the website, generating marketing content, running analytics, and handling customer communications. This allowed two people to launch and operate a company that reported $401 million in 2025 revenue.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 2, 2026
Creative GenPractice documented: MEDVi's website and ads showed before-and-after weight-loss photos that were deepfakes: real transformation photos taken from Reddit and other public websites, with the faces AI-swapped to present them as MEDVi patient success stories. The New York Times confirmed this practice in its April 2026 profile of the company.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 2, 2026
Creative GenPractice documented: MEDVi produced AI-generated video testimonials for use in paid advertising campaigns, using the AI video generation tool Runway. Multiple fake doctor personas used identical scripts across different videos, suggesting the content was produced at scale using automated tools rather than filmed with real people.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 2, 2026
Creative GenNew evidence: How A.I. Helped One Man (and His Brother) Build a $1.8 Billion Company
Evidence AddedView practice →Apr 4, 2026
Creative GenNew evidence: The New York Times spotlighted MEDVi. The FDA had already warned the self-proclaimed ‘fastest growing company in history.’
Evidence AddedView practice →Apr 6, 2026
ProductivityNew evidence: Beware The Magical Two-Person, $1 Billion AI-Driven Startup
Evidence AddedView practice →Apr 6, 2026
Creative GenNew evidence: Medvi, the AI-powered telehealth company, is fueled by ads from doctors who don't appear to exist
Evidence AddedView practice →Apr 6, 2026
Creative GenPractice documented: MEDVi and its affiliate marketers used AI image generation to create fake doctor personas — complete with fabricated names, credentials, and profile photos — and ran thousands of paid ads on Facebook under those false identities. As of April 2026, more than 5,000 active MEDVi ad campaigns had been identified running under these fictitious physician accounts. None of the fake doctor pages included the legally required disclosures.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 7, 2026
ProductivityNew evidence: The New York Times Got Played By A Telehealth Scam And Called It The Future Of AI
Evidence AddedView practice →Apr 7, 2026
Creative GenNew evidence: A $1.8 billion AI startup with just 2 employees was hailed as the future of business. Now, the negative allegations are piling up
Evidence AddedView practice →MEDVi used AI tools to replace nearly every business function that a company of its size would normally staff humans to perform — including writing all software code, designing the website, generating marketing content, running analytics, and handling customer communications. This allowed two people to launch and operate a company that reported $401 million in 2025 revenue.
Founder Matthew Gallagher built MEDVi from scratch in two months with $20,000 using more than a dozen AI tools. He used large language models (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok) to write code and copy, MidJourney and Runway for images and video, ElevenLabs for AI voice tools, and custom AI agents to connect software systems and generate real-time business analytics. All clinical operations were outsourced to third-party partners CareValidate and OpenLoop Health, meaning no clinical or customer-facing roles were filled by MEDVi employees. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman cited MEDVi as evidence of his prediction that AI would enable a one-person billion-dollar company. Research firm Forrester published a rebuttal calling that framing misleading, and arguing that what MEDVi demonstrated was primarily the ability to use AI tools to scale deceptive marketing rather than to replace legitimate business operations.
MEDVi produced AI-generated video testimonials for use in paid advertising campaigns, using the AI video generation tool Runway. Multiple fake doctor personas used identical scripts across different videos, suggesting the content was produced at scale using automated tools rather than filmed with real people.
MEDVi used a suite of generative AI tools to create nearly all of its website content, including page copy, product images, and marketing visuals. The company's own website acknowledges that text, images, and other media on the site "may be generated or enhanced using artificial intelligence technologies." This approach allowed one person to build and launch the entire website in roughly two months starting in 2024.
MEDVi's website and ads showed before-and-after weight-loss photos that were deepfakes: real transformation photos taken from Reddit and other public websites, with the faces AI-swapped to present them as MEDVi patient success stories. The New York Times confirmed this practice in its April 2026 profile of the company.
MEDVi and its affiliate marketers used AI image generation to create fake doctor personas — complete with fabricated names, credentials, and profile photos — and ran thousands of paid ads on Facebook under those false identities. As of April 2026, more than 5,000 active MEDVi ad campaigns had been identified running under these fictitious physician accounts. None of the fake doctor pages included the legally required disclosures.
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MEDVi deployed an AI chatbot to handle all customer service for a claimed patient base of 500,000+ people — a function performed by zero dedicated human support staff. The chatbot was documented giving patients incorrect drug prices and inventing product lines that MEDVi does not offer. When patients demanded a human, calls were forwarded to the founder's personal phone.
The New York Times reported that MEDVi's AI chatbot fabricated drug prices on multiple occasions — errors the founder chose to honor to avoid customer complaints — and promoted a hair-loss treatment product line that did not exist. With only two employees at the company, the chatbot served as the primary and effectively only point of contact for a large patient base. When customers insisted on speaking to a human representative, calls were redirected to founder Matthew Gallagher personally; he reported answering more than 1,000 such calls. MEDVi's website advertised the chatbot as providing unlimited, 24/7 support. These AI hallucination errors occurred in a healthcare context involving prescription medications.
MEDVi produced AI-generated video testimonials for use in paid advertising campaigns, using the AI video generation tool Runway. Multiple fake doctor personas used identical scripts across different videos, suggesting the content was produced at scale using automated tools rather than filmed with real people.
An April 2026 investigation found that MEDVi's ad library included AI-generated video testimonials that recycled word-for-word identical scripts across multiple fabricated physician personas. One documented ad showed a woman injecting herself and looking in a mirror, with overlaid text claiming patients could receive a prescription in five minutes and that MEDVi had a "99% approval rate." MEDVi's founder confirmed to the New York Times that he used Runway — a commercial AI video generation platform — to produce video content for advertising. The use of identical scripts across different fake identities is consistent with AI-assisted bulk content production rather than individually recorded testimonials.
