From AI art to body scans: Midjourney unveils underwater body scanner

Midjourney is embarking on a new business model: a body ultrasonic scanner. Known for turning text prompts into AI-generated images, the company has now revealed its next project: the Midjourney Scanner, a medical machine that can scan your entire body in under 60 seconds. The project name, Midjourney Medical, has nothing to do with any of the company's previous ventures. 

How does it work? You step onto a platform and get submerged in water at about two inches per second. As you descend, your body passes through a ring of half a million tiny elements (each one the size of a sand grain) that fire ultrasonic waves at you from every angle and record what bounces back. Midjourney compares the experience to being surrounded by half a million tiny dolphins using echolocation all at the same time.

As a result, you get a detailed 3D map of your body, with an accuracy of a fraction of a millimeter, similar to an MRI, but produced at nearly a hundred times the speed. Midjourney aims to scan the whole body in less than 60 seconds, much less than the 60 to 90 minutes that a full-body MRI takes. Moreover, the scanner will use custom silicon to enable much better image quality.

Midjourney is building this project in collaboration with Butterfly Network, an ultrasound device maker. Over the next year, the technology will be refined, and, when ready, will be introduced in spas. The first one is planned to open in San Francisco. From there, the plan is to get FDA approval, expand to other cities in 2028, and reach 50,000 scanners worldwide by 2031.