Serial entrepreneur Naveen Jain plays digital doctor

Naveen Jain has been one of technology’s heavy hitters for a long time as the founder of startups such as Moon Express, Intelius and InfoSpace.

Now he is jumpstarting an incentive-based prize challenge to develop what he calls Digital Doctor, a way to improve access to better healthcare through artificial intelligence. Jain is donating $1 million of his own money to get it going.

The idea is to get Digital Doctor medical diagnosis technology on an Android tablet in places where there is no medical care. It could be used by someone to diagnose the most-common diseases. The hope is to impact the lives of a billion people and allow people to build a business around the diagnosis service in remote areas.

Jain said he is also interested in overhauling education and using synthetic biology to solve the world’s energy problems. He believes that innovation and entrepreneurship is the best way to solve any problem.

“I grew up very very poor in India,” he said in an interview. “This country has given me so much. I have such an obligation to give back.”

We caught up with him at the graduation ceremony of Singularity University, where Jain is a board member, on Friday for a video interview. Check it out.

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