“AI-powered genital scans could revolutionize sexual health with the use of HeHealth’s Calmara platform, which claims to analyze images of male genitalia for common sexually transmitted infections in just 60 seconds. Despite the potential benefits, the platform has faced criticism over consent, data privacy concerns, and the handling of sensitive material, such as child sexual abuse images. The company’s credibility has been called into question, prompting the founders to address these issues and make changes to their product.
Calmara is part of the booming market for AI-driven healthcare products, with many companies racing to deploy models for various uses. HeHealth, the parent company behind Calmara, was founded in 2022 and has raised $1.1 million in funding from external investors. The platform offers similar products for both men and women to self-check for sexually transmitted infections, using an AI model that has been tested by thousands of users worldwide.
The AI model used by Calmara and HeHealth was trained on a dataset containing images of five penile diseases, sourced from physicians around the world. The company claims to identify the presence of over 10 diseases with an accuracy of up to 96%, despite questions about the model’s efficacy and independent review. The use of synthetic data and publicly sourced images has raised concerns about bias and privacy, with critics calling for more transparency and accountability from the company.
Privacy experts have raised red flags about Calmara’s data retention policies, consent process, and potential violations of data privacy laws. While the platform claims to delete images once they’ve been screened for STIs, user data is still stored by HeHealth, raising questions about how this information is used and shared. Critics argue that the platform’s handling of sensitive material, like medical images, requires stricter safeguards and oversight to protect user privacy.
In response to criticism, the founders of Calmara and HeHealth have made changes to their products and policies, including updating data retention periods and removing misleading information from their website. However, questions remain about the platform’s transparency, partnerships, and accountability, with experts calling for more clarity on how user data is handled and how the AI model is trained. As the company navigates these challenges, it will need to address concerns about consent, data privacy, and ethical use of AI in healthcare to gain public trust and credibility.”
