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 evaluations. Complying with this entails 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 rely again on their instinct, on paper medical journals, or why not, on tarot cards. OpenEvidence takes its $12 billion home, leaving Europe with such strict regulation that even artificial intelligences flee. At least, Brussels bureaucrats can sleep soundly: no algorithm will steal their jobs.