Known for its AI image generator, Midjourney has launched Midjourney Medical to develop a next-generation body scanner that could transform medical imaging and reshape preventive care. The company plans to open its first scanning center in San Francisco in 2027, with a long-term goal of deploying 50,000 scanners worldwide by 2031.
From AI art to medical technology
Few expected Midjourney – best known for its AI image generator – to enter one of medicine's most technically demanding fields. Yet founder David Holz describes the new project as the company's most ambitious undertaking. "We're announcing something a little strange and a little crazy, but also spectacular and full of hope," the company wrote in its launch announcement. "We're building a bold new machine that will redefine the foundations of healthcare and our relationship with our own bodies."
The company aims to build Midjourney Scanner, a system designed to generate a three-dimensional map of the entire human body using ultrasound rather than magnetic fields or ionizing radiation. According to the company, a complete scan could take around 60 seconds, making the experience dramatically faster than conventional MRI examinations. Unlike MRI or CT scanners, the system is intended to be comfortable enough for regular preventive use rather than reserved for patients with suspected disease.
More like a wellness experience than a hospital visit
The scanner itself resembles more of a wellness installation than a piece of medical equipment. A patient steps onto a platform that gradually lowers them into a shallow pool of water; their body passes through a circular ring containing hundreds of thousands of miniature ultrasound transducers that continuously emit sound waves and simultaneously capture returning echoes, millions of times per second.
The resulting stream of information amounts to terabytes of raw data. Computer clusters then reconstruct a highly detailed three-dimensional representation of the body from these acoustic signals. The company believes the procedure could eventually become so simple and convenient that people would undergo scans every month. Doctors, and eventually AI systems, could compare successive scans to identify subtle anatomical changes long before symptoms appear.
Midjourney plans to make the experience fundamentally different from today's imaging departments. The first Midjourney Spa, scheduled to open in San Francisco in 2027, is expected to combine scanning facilities with saunas, cold-water pools and relaxation areas. Instead of associating imaging with illness, the company hopes to turn it into part of a broader wellness routine.
A vision built on computational ultrasound
Although the concept has drawn comparisons with MRI, Midjourney emphasizes that the technology relies on a very different principle. Rather than using magnetic resonance, the scanner employs large-scale ultrasound combined with advanced signal processing and powerful computing infrastructure. Artificial intelligence plays only a supporting role. According to David Holz, AI is primarily responsible for segmenting images and assisting interpretation, while the images themselves are generated through ultrasound physics and computational reconstruction.
That distinction is important. Midjourney is not attempting to create AI-generated medical images. Instead, it aims to capture an unprecedented amount of ultrasound data and transform it into detailed three-dimensional visualizations using modern computing techniques.
Initially, however, the system will not function as a diagnostic device. The first version is expected to focus on producing highly detailed maps of body composition, while any future diagnostic applications will require extensive clinical validation and regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
An ambitious roadmap and skepticism from the medical community
The company says it wants to manufacture more than 50,000 scanners by 2031, collectively performing up to one billion scans every month. If achieved, this would represent one of the largest medical imaging infrastructures ever deployed. The company argues that widespread preventive imaging could dramatically improve early disease detection, potentially reducing mortality while lowering healthcare costs through earlier intervention.
While many praised the project's ambition, radiologists and imaging specialists were quick to point out that important questions remain unanswered. The most significant concern is the lack of scientific evidence. So far, Midjourney has not published peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the scanner's imaging quality, diagnostic accuracy, or clinical performance. Nor has it presented comparative data showing how its technology performs against established imaging methods such as MRI or CT.
Another point of contention is the comparison with MRI itself. Although both technologies aim to visualize structures inside the body, they rely on entirely different physical principles and have different strengths. MRI excels at imaging soft tissues, the brain, joints, and many internal organs, while ultrasound has traditionally been limited by factors such as bone, air-filled structures, and imaging depth. As a result, many experts caution that the two methods should not be viewed as interchangeable. Even if Midjourney succeeds in producing exceptionally detailed ultrasound images, demonstrating that they provide equivalent clinical information will require years of validation.
Whole-body screening rides the longevity wave
Midjourney is also entering a field that has become increasingly popular in recent years: preventive whole-body health screening. The concept appeals to many people: Rather than waiting for symptoms to appear, individuals undergo comprehensive scans at regular intervals, allowing doctors to monitor subtle changes over time and potentially detect diseases at an earlier stage. The challenge is that more testing does not always translate into better health outcomes.
Medical societies have long warned about the problem of overdiagnosis. Advanced imaging often detects tiny abnormalities that would never have caused symptoms or threatened a person's health. Yet once discovered, these incidental findings frequently lead to additional scans, biopsies or invasive procedures, increasing healthcare costs while causing unnecessary anxiety for patients.
For this reason, many experts argue that routine whole-body imaging of healthy individuals should be approached cautiously until robust evidence demonstrates that the benefits outweigh the potential harms. Midjourney is not the first company attempting to redefine preventive diagnostics.
One of the best-known examples is Neko Health, the Swedish health technology company founded by Daniel Ek, Spotify's co-founder. Neko combines a wide range of non-invasive technologies – including high-resolution cameras, thermal imaging, cardiovascular measurements, skin mapping, retinal imaging and blood analyses – to create a comprehensive picture of a person's health during a single visit.
The examination takes about an hour and is followed by a consultation with a physician. The company's clinics have attracted strong consumer demand, with waiting lists stretching into the tens of thousands, reflecting growing public interest in technology-enabled preventive healthcare.
A Neko Health assessment costs around €350 in the UK, making it significantly less expensive than a full-body MRI while offering a broad preventive health evaluation. The key difference is that Neko focuses on combining multiple established diagnostic techniques, whereas Midjourney is developing an entirely new imaging platform capable of generating three-dimensional representations of the whole body using computational ultrasound.
Both companies, however, share the same vision: moving healthcare away from treating disease after symptoms appear and toward continuous monitoring to detect problems much earlier.
For now, Midjourney Medical represents one of the most intriguing ideas in digital health – a project that combines Elon Musk-like ambition with a genuine desire to rethink preventive medicine. Whether it ultimately transforms healthcare or joins the long list of promising ideas that failed to meet clinical expectations will depend on the strength of the evidence that follows.
