By Chris Welch
AI startup Midjourney Inc. announced its first hardware project at an event in San Francisco, outlining an unexpected move into the personal health and medical industries.
Chief Executive Officer David Holz revealed what he described as a “full-body ultrasound machine” called the Midjourney Scanner. “No such device has ever been built until now,” he claimed, touting the new technology as superior to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in numerous ways.
“Our goal is to build a fleet of 50,000 of these scanners,” Holz said, declining to specify how much the product will cost. “We’re not even using any AI in this yet — just really cool hardware and software.”
The machines, which require users to be partially submerged in water, will debut in “Midjourney Spa” locations, with the first to come in a 25,000-square feet space in San Francisco that will include hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges and a gym, among other amenities. “We’ve signed a lease and we already have the designs,” Holz said.
The device is one of eight projects that Midjourney is currently focused on, split between four hardware and four software initiatives. Holz said that the company aims to ship at least two of those hardware efforts in the near term.
Addressing potential hurdles that could come with meeting FDA requirements, Holz said “one of the goals is to do all things that are easy,” and layer on approval after approval “until this thing can do thousands of types of diagnoses,” he said. “Over a 10-year period, these things are not just imaging devices: They’re probably therapeutic as well.”
Before Wednesday’s sudden business shift, Midjourney was mostly known as a generative AI subscription service that lets customers create images and video clips. Prices range from $10 to $120 per month.
The startup has faced legal challenges from content owners including Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Walt Disney Co. over alleged theft of intellectual property, with the entertainment companies claiming that their well-known characters have appeared in Midjourney’s generated images and videos.
