Looking ahead: Midjourney built its name on AI-generated images. Now, it is talking about something far more ambitious: scanning the human body. In a post this week, the company outlined plans for a body-scanning system built around ultrasonic sensing and large-scale data capture. The idea is to generate detailed, three-dimensional images of the body in under a minute, with performance the company says could rival MRI scans but without the same discomfort.

The concept is still largely theoretical, but the company describes a system built around an enormous number of tiny sensors working in tandem. A person would pass through a scanning chamber where ultrasonic signals are directed at the body from all sides, capturing internal data from multiple angles at once. Midjourney describes the setup as a softly lit, pool-like space where people descend through a ring of sensors that operate on echolocation principles to build a detailed internal image of the body.

At full scale, the company envisions a ring containing roughly half a million sensors, each about the size of a grain of sand. Together, they would generate a constant stream of ultrasonic signals, producing what Midjourney says could amount to terabytes of data every second.

That volume of information is central to the company’s approach. “You want as much data as you can get about your health as quickly and as cheaply as possible,” the company wrote. “In other words, you want a technology optimized for getting as many megabytes per second per dollar of information about your body.”

Collecting that much data, however, is only part of the problem. Turning it into something usable is another matter entirely. Midjourney acknowledges it still has to solve what it calls a ‘major computational task’: turning noisy, overlapping ultrasonic signals into clear, stable images.

That challenge remains unsolved, and the company has not said how close it is to overcoming it.

What makes the proposal more unusual is how Midjourney plans to use the technology. Rather than limiting it to hospitals or diagnostic labs, the company is building a consumer-facing concept around it. Its first location, called the Midjourney Spa, is expected to open in downtown San Francisco before the end of next year.

The setting is meant to feel more like a high-end wellness space than a medical facility, with features like hot tubs, cold plunges, and private rooms. Inside those rooms, the scanning system would operate quietly in the background. Midjourney describes them as “cozy rooms with pools of golden light which softly scan your body.”

“The scans are a side-effect,” the company wrote. “You barely think of them when going to the spa. But suddenly, you have a huge library of data about your health.”

That framing suggests a shift away from one-off scans and toward continuous or repeated imaging that is built into a routine experience. It also raises practical questions about how such data would be handled, particularly given its volume and sensitivity.

Midjourney says it intends to send early test data from the scanner to the FDA, aiming to secure regulatory approval for future devices with increased capabilities. At the same time, it is already looking beyond a single location, with plans to expand to additional cities starting in 2028.

For now, many details remain unclear, including how far along the technology actually is. But the direction is clear enough: Midjourney wants to go from making images for screens to imaging what’s inside people, using dense arrays of sensors and heavy-duty data processing to do it.

SECURITY

John Edwards says his position had become ‘untenable’ following investigation into conduct including inappropriate attempts at humor

John Edwards has resigned as Britain’s information commissioner, saying his position had become “untenable” following an investigation into conduct he admits caused offense.

Edwards announced his departure in a statement posted to LinkedIn on Friday, bringing an abrupt end to a saga that has engulfed the UK’s data protection watchdog for months. Edwards said he had informed technology minister Ian Murray of his resignation from the roles of Information Commissioner and chair of the Information Commission, effective immediately.

“Since February of this year I have been the subject of an investigation,” Edwards wrote. “While I have not agreed with how that investigation has been conducted, I accept that my position has become untenable.”

He added that there had been occasions where he exercised “poor judgement” and made attempts at humor that were “inappropriate and caused offence.”

“It is for this reason that I have decided that it is appropriate that I resign from my position,” he wrote. “I do not wish to be a distraction to the ICO’s important work.”

The resignation comes just over a week after the Information Commissioner’s Office announced that an independent workplace probe had concluded there was “a case to answer,” prompting the regulator to strip Edwards of his remaining responsibilities while the process continued. 

At the time, neither the ICO nor the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) disclosed the nature of the allegations.

The probe first surfaced publicly in April, when the ICO confirmed Edwards had voluntarily stepped back from his duties on February 26 while an independent investigation into “HR matters” was carried out.

Edwards’ resignation statement sheds slightly more light on what prompted the investigation. He accepts that some of his conduct caused offense, but offers no details about the incidents in question or the investigation’s findings.

The former New Zealand privacy commissioner spent much of his statement reflecting on the challenges facing regulators, including AI governance, online safety, and international cooperation. He also praised ICO staff and said he remained committed to the principles that had guided his professional life.

Notably, Edwards has disabled comments on the resignation post, and his profile now carries LinkedIn’s green “Open to Work” banner, a reminder that even Britain’s former privacy regulator eventually can end up marketing himself on LinkedIn.

Questions remain for both the ICO and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Neither has yet explained the conduct that triggered the investigation, whether the investigation’s findings will be published, or how the process reached the point where the UK’s top privacy regulator concluded he could no longer remain in office.

A spokesperson at DSIT told The Register:

“John Edwards has resigned from the post of Information Commissioner and Chair of the Information Commission with immediate effect. This follows an independent investigation that took place regarding allegations made against him.

“The government expects the highest standards of conduct from all senior leaders in public life. Mr Edwards has acknowledged that his conduct fell below these standards.”

The ICO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

For now, deputy commissioner and chief executive Paul Arnold continues to carry out the commissioner’s statutory responsibilities while the government works out what comes next. ®

Google’s long-awaited new smart speaker is finally official, although it will not actually land on store shelves until June 25. The $99.99 Google Home Speaker is not just a long-overdue hardware refresh; it is Google’s first audio product built specifically around Gemini for Home, with 360-degree sound, improved microphone processing, more natural conversations, and the ability to handle multi-step requests without making users speak like they are submitting a help-desk ticket.

AI is not slowly creeping into consumer A/V. It has been living in the category for years through voice control, streaming recommendations, picture processing, room correction, smart cameras, automation, and the increasingly complicated network of devices sitting in people’s homes. What has changed is the scale of the fight. Google’s Gemini for Home now faces Amazon’s Alexa+ and Apple’s newly introduced Siri AI in a much larger battle to become the preferred control layer for the living room, the smart home, streaming services, connected cameras, and whatever paid ecosystem each company can build around them.

The speakers may remain relatively inexpensive gateway products, but the stakes are enormous. Google, Amazon, and Apple are not competing simply to answer trivia questions or switch off a lamp from across the room. They are competing for the household interface: the assistant consumers trust to control devices, surface information, make recommendations, manage routines, and potentially keep them inside one company’s hardware and services ecosystem.

Google Home Speaker is the latest opening shot in that phase of the war. Whether Gemini proves genuinely more useful than its rivals, rather than simply more articulate while failing to dim the correct lights, is the part that will matter.

Google Is Rejoining a Smart Speaker Market That Did Not Wait Around

The $99.99 Google Home Speaker does not require a monthly subscription for its core Gemini voice-assistant features, including smart-home control, music playback, timers, reminders, and general questions. But Google Home Premium is where the more ambitious version of the platform lives.

The Standard plan costs $10 per month in the U.S. or £8 per month in the U.K., adding Gemini Live, automation assistance, intelligent alerts, and 30 days of event video history. Google includes six months of the service with eligible new speaker purchases, but once that trial ends, consumers will need to decide whether the more conversational and capable Gemini experience is worth another recurring smart-home bill.

Google also arrives at a moment when its smart-speaker ecosystem has been looking rather thin. The JBL Authentics 300 and Authentics 500, launched in 2023, remain among the few meaningful third-party speakers to offer Google Assistant, and both are notable because they also support Amazon Alexa. They are still capable products, but they are hardly evidence of a platform firing on all cylinders in 2026.

Amazon, by comparison, has kept moving. Its own lineup includes the Echo Dot (5th Gen), the newer Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11, all positioned around Alexa+ and Amazon’s broader smart-home ecosystem. Alexa has also found its way into products beyond the Echo family.

The Sonos Era 300 and new Sonos Play support Alexa in compatible regions, while Bose has now launched the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker and Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar with Alexa built in and Alexa+ support in the U.S.

Denon’s new Home 200, Home 400, and Home 600 show that the multi-room wireless speaker category is still evolving as well, even if those models are more about HEOS, Dolby Atmos Music, and higher-quality streaming than becoming another Alexa endpoint. That distinction matters. Google is not simply trying to catch up in smart-speaker hardware; it is trying to persuade consumers, manufacturers, and developers that Gemini for Home deserves to be the intelligence layer sitting in the middle of their connected homes.

That is a much harder job than playing a playlist or switching off the kitchen lights, especially when Amazon already has a deep hardware bench and Apple continues to keep Siri tightly tied to its own ecosystem.

Related Reviews:

More Than a Gemini Badge

The Google Home Speaker is not just old Google hardware with a Gemini logo stamped on the fabric. Inside the compact 3.4-inch-high, 4.2-inch-wide enclosure is a quad-core 2.0GHz Cortex-A55 processor with an NPU, 1GB of LPDDR4 memory, and 4GB of eMMC storage. Google is clearly treating this as a more capable local smart-home endpoint, not merely a cloud-connected speaker waiting for instructions.

Audio is handled by a single 58mm full-range driver designed for omnidirectional playback. Google calls the result balanced 360-degree sound, which sounds sensible for a small room speaker, podcasts, casual music listening, and background use. It is not a multi-driver Sonos Era 300, an Echo Studio, or anything pretending to replace a real stereo system. Google has not published amplifier power, frequency-response, or maximum-output figures, so any serious assessment of its musical performance will have to wait until retail units are available.

The microphone array is more important than the driver count. Google uses three far-field microphones and says its processing adapts to the room so Gemini can better understand natural requests, corrections, and follow-up questions. A two-stage physical microphone-mute switch remains on the hardware, which matters when the speaker is designed to keep up with a conversation rather than simply wake, answer, and go back to sleep.

Connectivity is also more current than Google’s last dedicated speaker generation. The Home Speaker supports Wi-Fi 6 on 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, Bluetooth 5.4, and Thread 1.3, and it can serve as a Matter hub within Google Home. That gives it a legitimate role as a smart-home controller, not just a voice-controlled music puck. Google does not list direct Zigbee support, a line input, battery power, or a second driver in the published specifications; that is where Amazon’s Echo Dot Max and more ambitious wireless speakers retain practical advantages.

For A/V users, the most interesting feature is the Google TV connection. Two Google Home Speakers can pair with a Google TV Streamer for spatial surround sound, while the speaker can also join groups with Nest speakers, Nest displays, and other Google Cast-enabled devices. It will not replace an AVR or a serious soundbar, but it gives Google a cleaner bridge between its smart-home and TV platforms than it has had in years.

The Bottom Line

Google’s strongest pitch is not that it suddenly has the deepest smart-speaker catalog. It does not. The more interesting shift is that Gemini can move beyond isolated commands and work with context. Gemini Live allows a more fluid back-and-forth conversation, while Help me create lets users build automations by describing what they want rather than digging through a settings menu like it is 2014. For Nest camera owners, the higher Google Home Premium Advanced tier can also search camera history and generate daily summaries of what happened while nobody was home.

That is useful, but it also exposes the catch. The speaker includes six months of Google Home Premium Standard, which unlocks Gemini Live and complex automation creation. After that, the fuller experience costs $10 per month, while the camera-history search and Daily Summaries features sit behind the $20-per-month Advanced tier. Google is selling a $99 speaker, but the differentiators that make Gemini feel genuinely different can turn into another household subscription before the year is out.

Amazon remains the safer choice for Prime members, Ring households, and anyone who wants more hardware options. Alexa+ is included with Prime, and Amazon’s current AI-focused range includes the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11. The Echo Dot Max is particularly awkward competition at the same $99.99 price: it adds a two-way speaker system and supports Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, while Google lists Matter and Thread but not Zigbee support for the Home Speaker.

Apple is not yet competing on equal terms here. Siri AI has been announced for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro, but Apple has not announced its availability for HomePod or tvOS. That leaves HomePod and HomePod mini as strong choices for Apple Music, AirPlay, HomeKit, and privacy-minded Apple households, but not yet direct rivals to Gemini Live or Alexa+ as conversational AI speakers.

The Google Home Speaker is the right choice for people already living with Nest cameras, Google TV, Android, and the Google Home app who want a more conversational assistant and smarter automations. Alexa+ remains the more complete option for Prime, Ring, Echo, and Zigbee households. Apple remains the obvious answer for people who want their smart home to stay firmly inside Cupertino’s walled garden, even if Siri AI has not yet arrived in the HomePod.

Where to buy:

Related Reading:

• Adobe sees major growth in AI referrals to travel sites
• Rich, structured content is the best way to ensure AI engine visibility
• Hotels lead the way, airlines fall short in being fully accessible to LLMs

Combined traffic analysis and market research has led Adobe to observe a 194% year-over-year rise in traffic to US travel websites, and an even more astounding 2,215% rise since it first started tracking AI referrals in October 2024.

The data implies that AI is being used for much more than research, as its use cases span planning, recommendations, packing and even budgeting.

AI doesn’t make integration intelligent by design. It just makes the gaps harder to ignore.

In mergers and acquisitions, technology doesn’t rescue a poorly prepared integration, it exposes whether two companies were ever ready to operate as one.