A NEW website called Calmara is promising to help women detect STIs in sexual partners with the help of AI and photos of men's genitals.
It pitches itself as a digital "intimacy bestie", in a move that has everyone from healthcare advocates to privacy experts raising their eyebrows.
The service claims to revolutionise sexual health screening by asking questions and using AI to check uploaded photographic evidence for STIs such as genital warts, herpes eruptions, and syphilis.
But let's rewind to the start of this peculiar tale.
In the not-so-distant past, a company named HeHealth was also offering men quick insights into their downstairs health via AI that could detect signs of STIs with a glance at a photo, boasting 65-96% accuracy.
Fast forward to the present, and Calmara enters.
It's mission?
To allow women to play detective with their potential partners' nether regions, all in the name of STI prevention.
Despite HeHealth attempting to draw a line between Calmara and its parent tech, people raised several privacy concerns as well as doubts around accuracy of results.
After all, both services seem to be cut from the same controversial cloth as they use the same AI.
Both HeHealth and Calmara have admitted in their fine print that maybe, just maybe, their AI's judgement isn't a substitute for a real doctor's advice.
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