Midjourney Medical
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Midjourney announces a rapid ultrasonic full-body scanner and spa concept.
Midjourney plans to build the Midjourney Scanner, a 60-second full-body imaging device using ultrasonic sound waves in a water bath to capture internal body images at near-MRI quality. The scanner consists of a ring with half a million micro-sized speaker/microphone elements that produce and record ultrasonic waves. The data is processed by a massive computer cluster to reconstruct 3D body maps. Midjourney also plans a Midjourney Spa in San Francisco in 2027, where scanning will be incidental to spa experiences. The company aims for 50,000 scanners worldwide by 2031, capable of a billion scans per month, and believes early imaging could avoid 30% of deaths and 50% of healthcare costs. Midjourney is a community-backed research lab with no investors.
The article includes reconstructed scan images of various body parts and describes the scanner's descent mechanism, data volume (terabytes per second), and computational requirements.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are sharply divided. Skeptics question the feasibility and necessity of a billion scans per month, citing false positives from full-body scans, the risk of over-treatment, and the potential for increased hypochondria. They argue such scans would primarily benefit the rich and generate anxiety without improving outcomes. Supporters counter that frequent, cheap scanning could enable early disease detection and large-scale health datasets for AI, comparing it to routine physicals or Japan's annual full-body tests. Some criticize the attitude of limiting health data access as paternalistic. Others worry about liability for missed diagnoses if AI interprets the scans.
A practical tip from one commenter notes that prophylactic ultrasound is safer than CT due to no radiation risk, and that some conditions like kidney stones can be detected early.