Midjourney goes from generating images to full body ultrasound scans

Midjourney, known for its Artificial Intelligence (AI) program that can generate images from text prompts, has announced its new project - a medical machine that can scan your whole body in just 60 seconds and help you identify health issues before they become issues, in what seems to be a subtle hat tip to Fountain Life that I spoke about a while ago. It's so far removed from what Midjourney is known for that we had to check the date and make sure it wasn't April 1st. Well, it's not April Fools, the Midjourney Scanner is real, and the company is even building spas where you can find the machines and get scanned.

In its announcement, Midjourney admitted that the project is not related to anything we've seen from the company so far. However, it's at the point where it's asking itself "How do we want to be different?" and "What do we want to become?" Its answer to those questions, apparently, is to launch Midjourney Medical, with the Scanner being its first hardware product.

"We've dreamed of something as powerful as MRI, and as casual as a trip to the spa, and we're unveiling a path to that – today," it wrote in its blog post.

The Future of Life Sciences & Healthcare 2040, a keynote by futurist Matthew Griffin

After you step on a platform, Midjourney's scanner will submerge you in water at a rate of 2 inches per second. Your body passes through a ring made of half a million squares the size of a grain of sand, with each one of them capable of emitting ultrasonic waves and of recording the ripples that bounce off your body and back to it.

The company compares them to dolphins that use echolocation, so going through a scan is like being surrounded by half a million tiny dolphins from every angle. It says the result of the scan is a "3D map of your body, down to a fraction of a millimeter, that looks a lot like today's MRIs but at nearly a hundred times the speed." Midjourney's goal is for the scan to take less than 60 seconds, a tiny fraction of the 60 to 90 minutes it typically takes to do a full-body MRI.

As Crypto Briefing notes, the company is developing the machine with handheld ultrasound device maker Butterfly Network. Midjourney signed a licensing agreement with Butterfly Network in November 2025, securing exclusive rights to its ultrasound-on-chip technology. The project is led by Tom Calloway PhD, Head of Medical at Midjourney.

Over the next 12 months, Midjourney will be fine-tuning its algorithms and the Scanner, doing research trials and working on a second-generation hardware design. It plans to open its first Spa housing Scanners in San Francisco sometime next year. The next step is to get the machine's diagnostic capabilities approved by the FDA. In 2028, Midjourney hopes to expand to more cities and launch its third-generation machine that will use custom silicon to enable much better image quality. It says that's when things will get "serious," perhaps in relation to how the Scanner can compete with standard MRIs.

Midjourney's ambition is to have 50,000 Scanners available worldwide by 2031.

"We think it's completely possible that with enough early imaging in the future, the world could avoid 30 percent of all deaths and 50 percent of all healthcare costs," the company said.

First published on Fanatical Futurist on 22 June 2026.

311 Intelligence

What this means

Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit

The big shift is body scanning moving from the hospital to the high street. Midjourney wants a scan that looks like an MRI, takes under 60 seconds and happens in a spa rather than a hospital. Our Starburst data shows the direction: we track Predictive Healthcare, AI helping doctors predict who will fall ill years ahead and shifting care towards prevention, as a Prepare trend.

What it means by sector.

• Healthcare providers: a 60 second scan against 60 to 90 minutes for a full-body MRI could change how imaging is priced and delivered. The diagnostic claims still need FDA approval, which Midjourney lists as a next step.
• Technology companies: an AI image company licensing Butterfly Network's ultrasound-on-chip technology shows how AI firms are looking for new markets beyond software.
• Insurers and employers: Midjourney claims early imaging could help avoid 30 percent of deaths and 50 percent of healthcare costs. That is the company's own claim, but if early scans prove useful, they become a benefit and a risk tool.

What to do now.

• Track the Scanner's research trials and FDA progress before planning around its diagnostic claims.
• If you run health benefits, consider how fast, low-cost screening could fit your prevention programmes.
• If you provide imaging, model what happens to demand when a full-body scan takes under a minute.

The Starburst technologies behind this story

From the 311 Technology Starburst (first product, expected wide use and readiness):

Technology	Category	First product	Wide use	Action	TRL
Wearable Ultrasound Imaging	Sensors	2024	2036	Watch	5
Generative Artificial Intelligence	Intelligence	2021	2025	Act now	9

And the trends they feed, from the 311 Trends Starburst:

Trend	Wide use	Action
Predictive Healthcare	2029	Prepare
Quantified Self	2020	Act now

How this moves the trend

Cheaper, faster body imaging has been building for years. In 2018 Butterfly Network released the iQ, putting ultrasound on a smartphone, and the same year saw the first full body 3D scanner. In 2020 researchers unveiled the world's first portable MRI machine, and by 2023 longevity clinics are popping up in the US. Midjourney now aims to combine fast scanning with a consumer spa model at scale.

Go deeper with 311

• The 311 Starburst Centre: every technology and trend above, with timelines and readiness.
• 311 Vantage: ask what fast body scanning means for your organisation and get a plain English executive brief.
• The Exponential Technology Codex and the Annual Trends Codex: the technologies and trends reshaping every industry.
• Book a briefing or keynote on the future of healthcare for your board or leadership team.