OpenEvidence, the AI-powered medical search engine used by four out of ten doctors in the United States, has thrown in the towel in the European Union and the United Kingdom. The company, valued at $12 billion, ceased its service on April 30, 2026. The official reason: European regulatory uncertainty, especially the classification of its system as high-risk AI under the EU AI Act.
The algorithm that refused to be a patient in the legal ICU 🏥
OpenEvidence's system analyzes medical records, articles, and real-time data to offer suggested diagnoses and treatments. The EU AI Act would place it in the high-risk category, requiring constant audits, algorithmic transparency, and bias assessments. Complying with this involves operational and legal costs that the company considered disproportionate for the European market. The decision reflects a pattern: tech companies prefer to leave rather than adapt their models to regulatory frameworks they consider ambiguous.
Europe prefers doctors to consult a crystal ball 🔮
The EU has managed to make a tool that helps diagnose diseases disappear from its borders. Now European doctors will have to go back to trusting their instincts, paper medical journals, or why not, tarot cards. OpenEvidence is taking its $12 billion home, leaving Europe with regulations so strict that even AIs flee. At least, the bureaucrats in Brussels can sleep soundly: no algorithm will steal their jobs.