Gamified Fitness and AI-Driven Neuroscience

The Mechanics of Gamified Fitness

Louis Phillips, founder of INTVL, describes a running app that shifts the focus from speed to territory acquisition. By turning a geographic area into a digital map where users 'claim' blocks through running, the app leverages social competition and notification-driven engagement to motivate users. Unlike platforms like Strava, which prioritize performance metrics that can lead to dangerous behavior, INTVL focuses on volume and exploration. The app is currently iterating on 'arenas'—time-based leaderboards for specific high-density locations—to balance casual play with competitive speed challenges.

Brain Tissue as Data Infrastructure

Alice Zhang, CEO of Verge Labs, details the company's pivot from drug development to building AI infrastructure for the pharmaceutical industry. Verge Labs has amassed one of the world's largest proprietary datasets of human brain tissue. Zhang frames this tissue as the 'LiDAR of neuroscience,' providing the ground truth necessary to train AI models that predict how specific genetic targets respond to treatments. By partnering with major pharmaceutical firms like Eli Lilly, Verge Labs aims to reduce the high failure rates of clinical trials by identifying viable drug targets earlier in the R&D cycle.

The Intersection of AI and Clinical Outcomes

Both segments highlight the shift toward using digital tools to solve high-stakes, real-world problems. For INTVL, the challenge is maintaining user retention through social dynamics and gamification loops. For Verge Labs, the challenge is proving that AI-driven target discovery can reliably translate into successful clinical trials. Zhang emphasizes that the value of their platform lies in the quality of their biological data, which acts as a moat against competitors who lack access to such specialized, proprietary datasets.