Midjourney unveils its first hardware product, the Midjourney Scanner, an ultrasound-based full-body scanner; it is unclear how AI fits into the medical effort

The AI image generator says this side project will be ‘in many ways superior to even MRI machines.’

The Verge 2026-06-18 Richard Lawler

Context & Ripple Effects

Midjourney’s recent coverage has centered on extending its generative-media product line: V7 refreshed its image model, V1 added video generation, and web access widened beyond its earlier Discord-centric experience. The Scanner is therefore a sharper departure, taking the company into physical medical equipment rather than another creative-software modality.

The related coverage also places the announcement beside AI-guided ultrasound and portable MRI efforts, making the scanner’s claimed comparison with MRI consequential even though Midjourney has not made its AI role clear.

First-order effects

Midjourney becomes a hardware entrant with an ultrasound-based full-body scanner, expanding its operational and product focus beyond image and video generation.
The product’s MRI-related performance claim immediately puts its medical proposition under scrutiny, particularly because the reported announcement does not explain how AI is used.

Second-order effects

AI-guided ultrasound and portable-imaging developers gain a prominent new comparison point, increasing the value of clearly differentiating their clinical workflow, imaging capability, and AI role.
Potential users must evaluate the scanner as a medical-imaging offering rather than assume Midjourney’s consumer AI brand translates into diagnostic utility.

Third-order effects

If more generative-AI companies pursue specialized devices, competition may shift from standalone models toward integrated hardware, imaging, and workflow products.
Whether that shift persists will depend on companies being able to turn broad AI claims into credible medical-product roles; this announcement leaves that proof point unresolved.

The trend: This is one data point in the expansion of AI-native companies from software generation tools into domain-specific physical products, including medical imaging.

Discussion

@nikitabier Nikita Bier on x
@midjourney Put me in the tub David
@tszzl Roon on x
the technological revolution we were promised
@midjourney @midjourney on x
Announcing a new division of Midjourney called “Midjourney Medical” [video]
@chrissgpt Chris on x
Mid journey unveils the future of medical scanning: “Less than a dozen of these machines operating together at full speed can do more full body scans than every MRI machine together on Earth. Our goal is to build a fleet of 50,000 of these scanners, capable together of doing a [v…
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@midjourney Cool
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
Pretty wild: @midjourney's big hardware debut is a full body scanner with the goal of upending the MRI machine market, and a spa. You read that right.
@autismcapital @autismcapital on x
They're calling it “Fullbody Ultrasonic Computational Tomography” or FUCT for short. Are you ready to get FUCT? [image]
@autismcapital @autismcapital on x
@midjourney Okay, you were right, we couldn't predict this.
@midjourney @midjourney on x
A technical dive inside our new “Midjourney Scanner” [video]
@davemorin Dave Morin on x
Everything is waves.
@philpax.me @philpax.me on bluesky
www.midjourney.com/medical/blog...
@ernie.tedium.co Ernie Smith on bluesky
Midjourney looked at Allbirds and said, “your pivot isn't extreme enough.” — Holy shit, this is sci-fi. — www.midjourney.com/medical/blog...
r/BetterOffline r on reddit
Midjourney announces that they're pivoting to spas and full body scanners
r/doctorsUK r on reddit
60 second full-body AI ultrasound to rival MRI, any radiologists want to weigh in on how outrageous this is?
@nickfloats Nick St. Pierre on x
What Midjourney is: - No investors, fully community-funded research lab - Revenue from image generation product funds all R&D - ~$100M in first 9 months, $200M by month 12, still growing - 8 active projects: 4 hardware, 4 software —2 hardware products coming to market soon [image…
Maria Burpee Maria Burpee on linkedin
Wow that Midjourney healthcare announcement is wild! Full-body ultrasound scanner “as powerful as an MRI, but as easy as going to a spa.” …
@iamstan.dev Ant Stanley on bluesky
If I hadn't read Midjourney's launch post of their new full body ultrasonic CT scan/spa combo product I would have just assumed this skeet was a troll — www.midjourney.com/medical/blog... [embedded post]
@yiningkarlli@mastodon.gamedev.place Yining Karl Li on mastodon
Midjourney, the GenAI image lab, is pivoting into building... a radiation-free medical body scanner using 358K ultrasound transducers and AI to process the TBs of scan data. The idea is a MRI or CT scanner, but without radiation and therefore much faster, in order to bring high-…
r/midjourney r on reddit
Midjourney unveiled a 60s full body scan CT
@ccatalini Christian Catalini on x
The perfect compounding playbook by @DavidSHolz and the @midjourney team: AI leads to better measurement. Better measurement delivers better ground truth. Better ground truth leads to better AI. https://x.com/...
Carlos Rodrigues Carlos Rodrigues on linkedin
🧠 Midjourney just swapped art pixels for human pixels. — They've just announced Midjourney Medical and a crazy new piece of hardware …
@aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network @aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network on bluesky
My firm belief is that operational images are about to be spectacularly messed with by GenAI - from medical scans, to surveillance footage & satellite images. Leveraging the “para-empirical” status of such images, GenAI positions plausibility over indexicality. — www.theverge.…
@mgrczyk Michael on x
@slatestarcodex @drethelin the false positive argument is not based in patient outcomes, IMO it is cope downstream of rationing care. you can imagine a protocol where scans are collected for years and never viewed until symptoms show, so you have a scan history. clearly better th…
@heavenlytoad @heavenlytoad on x
Finally able to share what we've been working on in the past year and half 🥹 so proud and lucky to be a part of the amazing team and continue my work on ultrasound tomography from grad school into this most ambitious version @midjourney
@slatestarcodex Scott Alexander on x
@drethelin I should probably learn more and write a post on this, but my first thought is that this isn't too interesting and the degree to which they're overselling it is a red flag. Ultrasound can't look through bone or air. Many of the things in the body you'd use an MRI to lo…
@nevadasanchez Nevada Sanchez on x
Few people know this, but the very early days at the founding of @ButterflyNetInc were an attempt at tomographic ultrasound. We quickly realized that it would never scale without ultrasound-on-chip. After a 15 year journey, I couldn't be more proud to see @midjourney build a
@iterintellectus Vittorio on x
this is actually incredible a full body ultrasound scanner that takes 60 seconds instead of spending an hour in an MRI tube, without radiation, hospitals or a $2000 bill soon you'll just walk into a health spa, order a coffee, step into the pod, and walk out with a 3D map of [ima…
@sebastiancaliri Sebastian Caliri on x
I just tested my hand in a mini version of this scanner. Images that are higher quality than MRI, whole body captured in <1 minute, virtually free to run. This is going to change medicine. Things get even crazier when you consider the possibility of using the same tank to focus
@nickadobos Nick Dobos on x
Midjourney made the first new medical imaging system in over 50 years!? Full body ultrasound. USCF You get dunked in a full body tube of water and blasted with sound waves for 60 seconds They are building a Midjourney spa in SF, with saunas and hot tubs, hoping to open by end [im…
@nickfloats Nick St. Pierre on x
Full body ultrasonic computational tomography Our goal is to build a fleet of 50,000 of these scanners capable together of doing a billion scans a month. Enough to bring full body imaging to everyone on earth. Midjourney Medical is here [image]
@jgebbia Joe Gebbia on x
When the future starts looking like what you thought it would 👏🏼👏🏼
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
My best friend Brandon Wirtz, a brilliant AI pioneer, died at the age of 40 from colon cancer. The doctors missed it. This would catch it. I asked the first question because of Brandon. I love @DavidSHolz who just announced this new unloading scanner and spa that could save
@arian_ghashghai Arian Ghashghai on x
reminder that Midjourney has 0 VC funding imo this is maybe the most utopian swing a big-ish US AI company has taken, and i'm totally convinced that this is largely due to their independence i.e. they could just invent without needing to satisfy the financialization demands of
@akristoffersen0 Alex Kristoffersen on x
What I've been working on for the last year :D
@pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x
The Midjourney ultrasound is made in partnership with Butterfly Health ($BFLY), which is going to fly today Still cheap if you think this 50k unit figure is possible. Btw they announced the partnership with Midjourney in November, stock up ~300% since then.
@tobi Tobi Lutke on x
This looks like a contender for one of the most legendary pivots
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
david holz is really one of the great american minds. incredibly grateful to be sharing a timeline with him.
@deryatr_ Derya Unutmaz on x
I think many people have realized what a revolutionary medical advance the Midjourney Scanner will be. It'll also be key to my dream of creating biological digital twins with AI. The vision & contribution of @DavidSHolz to humanity will go down as one of the greatest in history!
@steipete Peter Steinberger on x
sci-fi vibes intensify
@davidsholz David on x
you'll wana see this
@jefftangx Jeff Tang on x
I've done Prenuvo and helped launch the Ezra x Blueprint scans Cancer is largely curable these days through early-stage detection. It's really only fatal when detected in later-stage That's why comprehensive annual scans will become as common as wearables and blood testing, if
@_sholtodouglas Sholto Douglas on x
Giving the right person unlimited licence to tinker can create wonders. This is what makes SF so beautiful.
@zeffmax Max Zeff on x
Loved Midjourney CEO David Holz's answer on what to make of the company now: “We're going to be a little confusing for the next six months as we announce all the things, but I'm hoping as they all are out there, they sort've form a picture which I hope feels pretty cohesive.
@victortaelin @victortaelin on x
I'm kinda speechless, not sure what I could write. This was the most unexpected and important launch of the year, and that includes Fable. If this is real it will save countless lives
@gabriel1 Gabriel on x
first profitable ai company reinvests everything into trying to save millions of lives and to make it as generally available as possible
@kimmonismus @kimmonismus on x
The Midjourney medical thing is genuinely strange and I kind of love it. The plan is a spa. Hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, open 24/7, first location in San Francisco in 2027. You step into a shallow pool of water, sink slowly through a ring of half a million tiny ultrasonic [ima…
@gregisenberg Greg Isenberg on x
For all the people that say that you can't build an important business unless you raise venture capital Midjourney is bootstrapped
@shivon @shivon on x
Amazing! Congrats to @DavidSHolz and the @midjourney team. Such a win for humanity ❤️
@nickmmark Nick Mark MD on x
I use ultrasound many times every single day in the ICU, but there's a lot of unreasonable hype about this “whole body imaging” ultrasound. I'm very skeptical of the claims being made and I'll explain why: First some fundamental limitations of US: Ultrasound doesn't penetrate
@pronounced_kyle Christian Keil on x
I'm calling it: this is the start of a new era in tech. First tangible example of massive consumer surplus from AI profits — more are coming! Three from Midjourney, but beyond that, @DavidSHolz just showed us how to make the techno-optimistic future real. And just in time!
@mwcvitkovic Milan Cvitkovic on x
David Garrett (@david_c_garrett) and colleagues at Caltech invented this system. First prototype demo'd in 2024: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ ... They're too humble to brag, but please give them love. Well-capitalized readers, please take inspiration: there are thousands of othe…
@david_c_garrett David Garrett on x
It was great spending a few months with the awesome team here! (especially as a fan of tubs) Congrats on the launch
@rampcapitalllc @rampcapitalllc on x
If you can stay alive for another decade, there's a decent chance AI-driven medical breakthroughs will add far more than a decade to your life. Bullish.
@pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x
Midjourney is opening a health spa in downtown San Francisco with hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges and a new form of medical imaging that they have created, the full body ultrasound. They can do a scan in 60 seconds. They want to deploy 50,000 of them over the next 6 years. [image]
@butterflynetinc @butterflynetinc on x
Half a million sensors. 40 Butterfly chips. A new way to see your own health. @Midjourney just pulled back the curtain on their whole-body scanner prototype — embedded with our Ultrasound-on-Chip™ technology. The next era of ultrasound is here → https://www.midjourney.com/... [vi…
@eastdakota Matthew Prince on x
What a time to be alive!
@tocelot Jon Lai on x
Midjourney Medical is a masterclass in compounding advantages Win an initial market (image gen) → use the cash, brand, talent to take bigger, riskier swings at the frontier (hardware, medical) The first win buys you the right to attempt the next harder thing. Go @DavidSHolz!
@_sholtodouglas Sholto Douglas on x
If deployed widely - I bet this will save the US healthcare system at least 100x all of MJ's profit to date. It's a great example of how much better someone like David is able to allocate capital than ~the rest of the world. The AI boom should empower a generation of people
@deryatr_ Derya Unutmaz on x
What?! This mind-blowing “Midjourney Scanner” was completely unexpected from Midjourney! @DavidSHolz just made the world a much better place by turning Star Trek-like medical scanning technology into reality! 🤯🖖
@j_g_allen Joseph Allen on x
The medical technology breakthrough isn't the news. The news is that companies with access to the latest AI can enter any field and dominate it. Midjourney realized they could make so much more money *using* their frontier AI tech rather than selling subscriptions and tokens.
@shaunmmaguire Shaun Maguire on x
Massive congrats to @DavidSHolz and the @midjourney team It's amazing to see someone take their AI winnings and put it into hardware that can save lives This is inspiring work, and I hope to see more of it from the AI community
@braydondymm Braydon Dymm on x
Splashing some cold water on Midjourney's scanner. There are limitations and trade-offs to everything, and so far, Midjourney has only proven they are capable of epic marketing videos. Proving clinical benefits is a bit harder. Still, they should be commended for their efforts!
@fchollet François Chollet on x
Midjourney just announced an extremely innovative new hardware project: full-body internal 3D scans without MRI. Check it out!
@deedydas Deedy on x
the midjourney roadmap was public the whole time [image]
@daniellefong Danielle Fong on x
I love the fact that @midjourney and @DavidSHolz are tackling such ambitious and innovative hardware projects that push down to the limits of physics and current technology. Total white pill.
@erictopol Eric Topol on x
On the @midjourney “Full Body Scanner” A nice idea that could add to our imaging capabilities, especially building on the power of ultrasound. But it's not full body. You can't use ultrasound to image the brain. My published smartphone ultrasound medical selfie in 2018 [image]
@avichal @avichal on x
One under-appreciated aspect of @midjourney Health is picking ultrasound as the foundational technology This is akin to @Apple picking a touch screen as the foundation for the iPhone and revolutionizing mobile as it has a number of downstream consequences Ultrasound is an
@growing_daniel Daniel on x
I like that midjourney made a medical imaging device because it's just related enough to be like oh yeah sure but also it's totally bizarre
@davidsholz David on x
@DaveShapi @midjourney its probably on the order of half a millimeter, beyond that and you need to do sub-wavelength diffraction stuff which is possible but we need a bigger team to do it!
@davidsholz David on x
@doodlestein ... yea we want to combine ultrasound with more modalities and light has a lot of interesting properties to it, but it also can't penetrate as deeply as sound! but it can do other things!
@davidsholz David on x
@Darpinian @midjourney it'll be lower resolution than other parts of the body but it should be possible! for the trickiest areas we may need to flip to lower frequency ultrasound which penetrates much more easily but also has lower resolution
@davidsholz David on x
@BaaagMaaan @midjourney we don't have any investors right now but there might be some weird financial structures we try to build to fund out the spa build-outs around the world - still thinking about the details
@midjourney @midjourney on x
We're gonna do a Midjourney Medical AMA (ask me anything ) right here all afternoon. Post your questions below and we'll try to answer as many as we can! ❤️
@davidsholz David on x
@boxcardavid @scaling01 everyone kept asking me why I didn't hire a agency 😭😭😭 yahh I think sometimes if you really want to “keep going until the job gets done” and it's sort of a vague goal it's better to do it yourself (or at least in house)
@davidsholz David on x
@camwiese @midjourney thanks i filmed and edited it myself 😭 I really wanted to get out a certain feeling that I had a hard time communicating to others
@camwiese Cameron Wiese on x
i've watched the @midjourney medical release video at least 20 times now. the score is incredible and makes the entire thing feel like the fulfillment of an old promise made about the future
@davidsholz David on x
@tobi happy you like it! but 80 percent of the company still works on image models this was made by a team of 9 people! wonderful people and I'm happy we have enough fuancial freedom to work on multiple projects at the same time ❤️definitely gonna grow the team now that it's publ…
@pdhsu Patrick Hsu on x
“Less than a dozen of these machines operating at full speed can do more full body scans than every MRI on earth” 🤯
@deanwball Dean W. Ball on x
One of my early projects on Hyperdimensional was to get to the bottom of neurotech, and an observation I had was “wow, seems like transducers are a nice cost curve to ride.” Didn't imagine them for full-body scanning, though. I do suspect it'll work.
@joshdefonzo Josh DeFonzo on x
At @Mendaerainc, we build on @ButterflyNetInc technology used by @midjourney. Ultrasound sees inside the body. Our platform helps more providers take action with precision that used to require a specialist. The more accessible each step becomes, the more medicine changes.
@sungkim Sung Kim on bluesky
This is probably the biggest AI news of the month - yes, bigger than Anthropic's Fable 5. — Midjourney Medical: a 60-second full-body scan at a fraction of the cost of an MRI. I hope they pull it off. — www.midjourney.com/medical/blog...

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