The founders of HeHealth, Mei Ling Lu and Yudara Kularathne, have launched a platform called Calmara that uses AI to analyze images of male genitalia for the presence of sexually transmitted infections. The platform claims to be able to identify more than 10 diseases with an accuracy of up to 96% in just 60 seconds. However, Calmara has faced criticism over consent, data privacy concerns, and the possibility of inappropriate content being shared on the platform.
The use of AI in healthcare is a rapidly growing market, with many companies developing AI-driven products for various health concerns. Calmara is one of many AI-driven consumer-facing products that aim to provide solutions for health issues. HeHealth, the company behind Calmara, has raised $1.1 million in funding from external investors and offers a similar product for men to self-check for STIs. The company claims to connect users with sexual health experts at partnered clinics in the United States, Singapore, and India.
The AI model used by Calmara and HeHealth was trained on a dataset of images of five penile diseases, both original and synthetic. The company claims that the AI model has been tested by more than 30,000 users worldwide. However, there are concerns about the efficacy of the model and the lack of independent review. The use of synthetic data to train AI has raised questions about biases and privacy issues.
There are also concerns about consent and data privacy surrounding Calmara and HeHealth. While the companies claim to prioritize user consent and privacy, critics argue that the nature of consent in this context is problematic. The handling of sensitive images, data retention policies, and potential privacy violations have also raised red flags among privacy experts and researchers.
Despite the criticism and concerns surrounding Calmara and HeHealth, the founders remain confident in their technology and its potential to revolutionize sexual health screening. They have made updates to their products in response to feedback and criticism but continue to face questions about transparency, partnerships, and data handling practices. As the debate over AI-powered genital scans continues, it remains to be seen how these platforms will navigate the complex ethical and privacy issues surrounding their use.
