Skin isn’t just the thing that holds the rest of our body together. It’s a vital organ in its own right, and it tells the story of our health across its surface. There are also many different ways that it can end up damaged or diseased. Modern technology, including AI, may make diagnosing any problems a little bit easier (https://longevity.technology/news/haut-ai-raises-e2m-to-expand-skincare-b2b-saas/).
Meet Haut.AI, a startup with headquarters in Estonia, and meet VC LongeVC and Grupo Boticįrio, the two big names behind its latest $2.17 million in seed funding. The first specializes in longevity, particularly biotech, while the second comes from the world of beauty and skincare. Haut takes its name from the German word for skin, and it plans to use the money to expand its growing ability to analyze your skin with its high-tech software.
At its best, skin is smooth, hydrated and almost glowing. Keeping it like that isn’t easy. There are all sorts of issues that can appear, sometimes apparently from nowhere. With wrinkles, blemishes, discoloration, spots, scars, and rashes, it can be hard to distinguish these problems. The potential causes are also numerous. Exposure to sun and weather, physical trauma, allergic reactions, pollutants, hormones and genetics all play a role, not to mention aging. That’s even before we start to talk about the impact of race and gender.
Haut has used more than three million images with more than a billion points of data, along with over 150 biomarkers, to help train its generative AI and its so-called “skincare intelligence” software. It even added some synthetic data to make sure it covered all possible skin tones, hopefully avoiding that unfortunately common situation where even medical professionals don’t know how to assess dark skin.
The latest AI-powered system from Haut is SkinGPT, which was released in 2023, but the company has been working with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for about seven years, so it has plenty of experience. It has also committed to trying to be ethical with its AI, including by monitoring for biases.
Many people choose skincare products based on marketing rather than the actual scientific research that supports them. SkinGPT allows you to take an image of your skin and match it to a wide range of skin conditions. Not only will it allow for early diagnosis and better monitoring, but it may also offer you more personalized skincare solutions.
