Inside Midjourney’s Medical Scanner: A Mystery Remains
▼ Summary
– Midjourney released a behind-the-scenes video of its dunk-tank ultrasound scanner, which it plans to deploy in spas as a wellness product focused on body composition.
– The scanner is described as hacked-apart ultrasound probes attached to a hot tub with off-the-shelf computers and Raspberry Pis.
– Experts previously raised concerns that Midjourney has shown little evidence it can overcome ultrasound’s limits or generate detailed images at the promised scale and speed.
– The company is emphasizing the scanner as a wellness product to avoid FDA clearance and clinical trials, but the video still uses medical language.
– CEO David Holz said Midjourney’s lack of investors gives it freedom to pursue the project, stating, “No one can tell me not to do it.”
Midjourney has pulled back the curtain a bit further on its ambitious medical scanner, but the evidence that it actually works remains conspicuously thin.
The AI company, widely recognized for its image-generation tools, recently shared a behind-the-scenes video of its dunk-tank-style ultrasound device. The plan is to roll it out in spas, with the long-term goal of revolutionizing medicine through low-cost, high-detail imaging that avoids radiation. The nearly 20-minute tour was led by Marcin Plaza, a tech YouTuber who also happens to be an engineer at Midjourney.
Plaza offers a refreshingly candid description of the scanner, calling it a collection of ultrasound probes that have been “hacked apart and slapped on a glorified hot tub with an elevator in it,” all wired into standard computers and Raspberry Pis. The footage provides a closer look at the hardware and the team assembling it, but it largely sidesteps the physics and imaging challenges that experts flagged when the project was first announced.
Those specialists told The Verge that Midjourney has yet to demonstrate it can overcome the well-documented limitations of ultrasound, a technology that has existed for decades. The company has offered little proof it can produce the kind of detailed images it has hinted at, at the scale and speed it promises. To its credit, Midjourney has emphasized that the scanner will launch as a wellness product focused on body composition, not as a diagnostic medical device, which would require FDA approval and clinical trials. In the video, head of medical Tom Calloway doubled down on that strategy, explaining that focusing on body composition would let the company “speedrun” the process and open immediately after testing wraps. Yet the video still leans heavily on medical terminology, posing questions about what physicians could achieve with access to frequent scans taken over time.
Calloway did not seem eager to clear up any ambiguity. “I don’t think there’s anything to really clarify,” he said, promising regular blog updates on progress. CEO David Holz, meanwhile, pointed to Midjourney’s independence from outside investors as a key advantage. “No one can tell me not to do it,” he said.
(Source: The Verge)
