Midjourney Unveils Full-Body Ultrasound Scanner
Midjourney Unveils Full-Body Ultrasound Scanner Midjourney, the AI lab best known for its image generator, is making a surprise leap into health tech with a full‑body ultrasound scanner it wants to package as a relaxing spa visit rather than a clinical exam.
From AI art to “Midjourney Medical”
In mid‑June, Midjourney publicly introduced a new division called “Midjourney Medical,” unveiling its first hardware product: an underwater full‑body scanner that uses ultrasound instead of radiation or magnets. The system lowers users on a platform or “elevator” into a tub of water, where a ring of thousands of ultrasonic sensors encircles the body, using echolocation “like a dolphin” to generate rapid 3D internal images.
CEO David Holz framed the project as a major evolution from the company’s popular AI art tool, joking that it’s “a bit different from the ‘cat pictures’” that made the brand famous. A job listing describes the goal as building “the world’s first full-body ultrasound CT scanner,” bringing “safe, fast, and high fidelity preventative scanning to billions via a magical spa experience.”
A spa-like health checkup
Midjourney says prototypes can produce a 3D body map in about 60 seconds and “could eventually make internal body imaging fast, routine, and more consumer-friendly.” The company pitches the scanner as “as powerful as MRI, and as casual as a trip to the spa,” with a San Francisco spa featuring hot tubs, saunas, and cold plunges planned for 2027.
Holz envisions people scanning themselves annually or even daily to track how diet and exercise change their internal composition of muscle, fat, bone, and organs. Midjourney has partnered with Butterfly Network, which supplies 40 “Ultrasound‑on‑Chip” imaging modules per system.
Tech optimism meets medical caution
The announcement drew interest from prominent tech figures; Elon Musk amplified Midjourney’s launch post on X, retweeting the message: “Announcing a new division of Midjourney called ‘Midjourney Medical.’”
Medical experts, however, voice caution. Radiologists interviewed about the project warned that frequent whole‑body scans can generate incidental findings, false positives, anxiety, and unnecessary follow‑up care if results aren’t interpreted in a proper clinical context. They note that U.S. guidelines generally endorse screening only when evidence shows a clear net benefit, meaning “finding more things in the body is not always helpful.”
Midjourney is seeking FDA approval for broader medical uses and aims to scale up to tens of thousands of scanners globally by the early 2030s, while promising pricing that is “as accessible as possible” yet profitable enough to fund expansion.
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