Dating App That Tried to Use AI and Dick Pics to Screen for STDs Gets Shut Down

A dating app that claimed it could usage artificial quality to surface imaginable mates for “sexual health” problems (i.e., STDs) has been unopen down aft the Federal Trade Commission caught upwind of the company’s dubious claims.

A institution called HeHealth antecedently promoted what it called an “AI-powered sexually transmitted corruption (“STI”) detection application,” the likes of which hilariously asked antheral users to nonstop successful dick pics truthful that they could beryllium screened for societal diseases. The app, dubbed Calmara, would past usage the magic of AI to measure whether the antheral subordinate was healthy. HeHealth claimed that Calmara could observe arsenic galore arsenic 10 antithetic sexually transmitted diseases with up to 94 percent accuracy and, connected its website, the institution described its exertion arsenic a “1 min AI-Powered Penis Health Checker”:

© hehealth.ai/screenshot

As you tin imagine, determination were problems with Calmara. For 1 thing, astir STDs are invisible to the bare eye. For different thing, the app doesn’t look to person worked precise well. Indeed, a erstwhile probe by the Los Angeles Times found that the app “struggled to separate betwixt inanimate objects and quality genitals, issuing a cheery “Clear!” to images of some a novelty penis-shaped vase and a penis-shaped cake.” Yeah, that’s not great.

After the FTC noticed HeHealth’s less-than-optimal trial results, it opened an probe into the company. In a letter sent to HeHealth and subsequently made public, the bureau notes that the authorities “requires companies to person competent and reliable technological grounds erstwhile making health-related claims,” and that “substantiation for HeHealth’s” claims astir its ain services appeared to beryllium “problematic for respective reasons.” Among different things, the bureau recovered that HeHealth had tested the show of its AI algorithm utilizing “a comparatively tiny fig of images” and that portion the institution had claimed to beryllium capable to trial for 10 STIs, a survey associated with the algorithm claimed it could lone place 4 diseases.

The FTC subsequently forced HeHealth to unopen down Calmara and delete each lawsuit information that had been obtained done it. The app’s troubles were first spotted by The Verge. Following the shuttering of the app, the FTC said it would not proceed with its probe into the company. Gizmodo reached retired to HeHealth for remark and volition update this communicative if it responds.

It’s astir apt conscionable arsenic good that Calmara is dead. Speaking arsenic idiosyncratic who has written astir cybersecurity for implicit 5 years now, it seems somewhat unwise for a institution to beryllium a walking dick pic database. That seems similar a information breach (and, later, a people enactment lawsuit) conscionable waiting to happen.