{
  "id": "AIBD-0151",
  "title": "Columbia's STAR system found two motile sperm in a sample manual checks had called sperm-free; after 19 years of infertility the couple conceived and had a daughter",
  "summary": "STAR AI found 7 sperm (2 motile) in 2.5m images of a “sperm-free” sample; a couple infertile for 19 years conceived and had a girl.",
  "date_observed": "2025-03-01",
  "date_basis": "unassessed",
  "date_precision": "unassessed",
  "benefit_status": null,
  "source_collection": null,
  "source_entry": null,
  "account": "At Columbia University Fertility Center in New York, a 39-year-old man with non-obstructive azoospermia and his 37-year-old wife had tried for 19 years. TIME calls her “Rosie”. That included 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgical sperm extractions. His 3.5 mL semen sample, read as sperm-free by manual examination, was run through STAR. It captured about 2.5 million images in roughly two hours and detected seven sperm, two motile. The two motile sperm were injected into eggs and two embryos were transferred on day 3. A pregnancy test was positive 13 days later, in March 2025. The Lancet published the case on 31 October 2025. A girl was born in December 2025.",
  "category": "benefit created",
  "unexpected": false,
  "purpose": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) was built over about five years at the Columbia University Fertility Center. It finds, and recovers undamaged, the few sperm in semen samples of men with azoospermia or cryptozoospermia. They can then be used for IVF by intracytoplasmic sperm injection. This pregnancy was exactly that intended use and its first clinical result.",
  "system": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery): a semen sample flows through a single-use microfluidic chip while a high-speed camera (about 300 frames per second, over 8 million images an hour) images it; an AI object-detection model flags sperm among cellular debris in real time and a microfluidic gate or robotic step diverts each flagged sperm into a droplet for immediate injection or freezing",
  "model_version": null,
  "developer": "Columbia University, Columbia University Irving Medical Center (team led by Zev Williams and Hemant Suryawanshi)",
  "deployer": "Columbia University, New York (used on its own patient)",
  "location": "New York, United States",
  "domain": "Healthcare - reproductive medicine (IVF for non-obstructive azoospermia)",
  "segment": "Academic fertility clinic and IVF laboratory",
  "benefit_type": "Improved Physical Health",
  "taxonomy_note": "A conception after azoospermia is read as a reproductive-health outcome.",
  "registry_ids": {
    "oecd_aim": "2025-11-03-2f05"
  },
  "ratings": [
    {
      "group": "personal",
      "depth": 3,
      "reason": "A healthy girl was born in December 2025 to a couple who had tried for 19 years through 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgeries. The husband had been told donor sperm or adoption were his only options (BBC, New York Post, DongA Science, NYT in syndication). The treatment enabled the couple to have a child after years of infertility."
    },
    {
      "group": "organizational",
      "depth": 2,
      "reason": "The case became the clinic's published proof of STAR. The service launched in late 2025 at $3,000 per analysis, three systems are in operation and the waiting list runs to hundreds. STAR was named a TIME Best Invention of 2025 (Columbia service page, NYT in syndication, BBC, TIME). A material gain for one institution."
    }
  ],
  "ai_role": {
    "status": "assessed",
    "statement": "The detector flagged seven sperm, two motile, in roughly 2.5 million frames of a 3.5 mL sample that manual examination had called sperm-free. The microfluidic recovery step delivered them intact. Without a usable sperm the couple's remaining options were donor sperm or adoption. Everything after that was conventional IVF done by people. Embryologists injected the two motile sperm into one fresh and one thawed egg, cultured two embryos and transferred them on day 3. Obstetric care followed. Limits on the attribution: the much-quoted comparison (44 sperm in an hour after two days of manual search) concerns a different sample. Whether a longer manual search of this sample would have found the two sperm was not tested. The letter's model version is not stated in any source on record (INCIID reports a YOLOv8 architecture, Columbia's patent filings describe YOLOv4)."
  },
  "evidence": [
    {
      "kind": "peer-reviewed study",
      "citation": "Suryawanshi H, Gemmell LC, Morgan S, Koustas G, Prosser RW, Fu R, Forman EJ, Williams Z (2025). First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia. The Lancet 406(10516):2213-2214, research letter published online 31 October 2025 (received 15 May, accepted 4 August 2025), PMID 41183539. Written by the team that developed STAR; the clinical figures are reported by the press release, PTI, the Free Press Journal, StudyFinds and Republic World.",
      "title": "First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01623-X",
      "date": "2025-10-31",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Malhi S (2025). AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case. The Washington Post, 27 June 2025. Quotes two uninvolved specialists, Robert Brannigan (ASRM president-elect) and Allison K. Rodgers, in support, and one sceptic, Gianpiero Palermo.",
      "title": "AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case",
      "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/27/ai-enabled-search-viable-sperm-infertility/",
      "date": "2025-06-27",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "Researchers at the Columbia University Fertility Center say this procedure, conducted in March, amounts to the first-known use of AI-enabled conception using this particular technology."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Malhi S (2025). AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case. The Washington Post, 27 June 2025 (second quotation: Gianpiero Palermo of Weill Cornell Medicine, who pioneered intracytoplasmic sperm injection, on the risk of false hope; Brannigan asked for testing at other clinics and tracking of pregnancy rates).",
      "title": "AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case",
      "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/27/ai-enabled-search-viable-sperm-infertility/",
      "date": "2025-06-27",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "You are attracting patients who have been told they have no sperm and offering what may turn out to be false hope"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Park A (2025). Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure. TIME, 10 June 2025. First report of the pregnancy: the wife, given the pseudonym Rosie, 38, became pregnant in March 2025 after nearly 19 years and 15 unsuccessful IVF cycles.",
      "title": "Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure",
      "url": "https://time.com/7291154/doctors-report-first-pregnancy-new-ai-procedure/",
      "date": "2025-06-10",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "The system can scan eight million images in about an hour."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Howard J (2025). A couple tried for 18 years to get pregnant. AI made it happen. CNN, 3 July 2025. Gives the December due date and Williams' estimate of a little under $3,000 to find, isolate and freeze sperm.",
      "title": "A couple tried for 18 years to get pregnant. AI made it happen",
      "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/health/ai-male-infertility-sperm-wellness",
      "date": "2025-07-03",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "hidden sperm were found, recovered and used to fertilize the wife’s eggs via IVF, and she became the first successful pregnancy enabled by the STAR method"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "FemTech World News Desk (2025). Doctors report first pregnancy using AI system to detect sperm in men previously considered infertile. FemTech World, 13 June 2025.",
      "title": "Doctors report first pregnancy using AI system to detect sperm in men previously considered infertile",
      "url": "https://www.femtechworld.co.uk/insight/doctors-report-first-pregnancy-using-ai-system-to-detect-sperm-in-men-previously-considered-infertile-aift25/",
      "date": "2025-06-13",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "scan around eight million images in an hour"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Park A (2025). Columbia University STAR method. TIME, The Best Inventions of 2025, 9 October 2025.",
      "title": "Columbia University STAR method: The Best Inventions of 2025",
      "url": "https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2025/7318439/columbia-university-star-method/",
      "date": "2025-10-09",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "After 20 years of trying, the first couple to use STAR is expecting their first child this year."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Quintanar S (2025). This AI-imaging tech from Columbia researchers is solving male infertility. Columbia Daily Spectator, 26 October 2025 (student newspaper; confirms the 15 unsuccessful IVF cycles).",
      "title": "This AI-imaging tech from Columbia researchers is solving male infertility",
      "url": "https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/10/26/this-ai-imaging-tech-from-columbia-researchers-is-solving-male-infertility/",
      "date": "2025-10-26",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "After trying to conceive for nearly two decades, a couple successfully received a positive pregnancy test after using the STAR system."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "PTI via The Economic Times (2025). How AI helped an infertile couple conceive after 19 years with just '2 sperm'. The Economic Times, 3 November 2025; one of the fourteen sources cited by the OECD Monitor. Gives 2.5 million images over two hours, seven sperm of which two viable, positive test 13 days after transfer, and a heartbeat of 172 beats per minute at eight weeks.",
      "title": "How AI helped an infertile couple conceive after 19 years with just '2 sperm'",
      "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/how-ai-helped-an-infertile-couple-conceive-after-19-years-with-just-2-sperm/articleshow/125051307.cms",
      "date": "2025-11-03",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "picked out just two healthy sperm cells, helping a US couple conceive after 19 years of trying, a report in The Lancet said"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Kanchwala T (2025). How AI Helped This Couple Get Pregnant After 19-Year Wait. Free Press Journal, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor. Gives the 3.5 mL sample judged sperm-free by manual checks, day-3 transfer, positive test 13 days later and transition to standard obstetric care.",
      "title": "How AI Helped This Couple Get Pregnant After 19-Year Wait",
      "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/tech/how-ai-helped-this-couple-get-pregnant-after-19-year-wait",
      "date": "2025-11-04",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "Over approximately two hours, the AI processed a staggering 2.5 million images, detecting seven individual sperm cells: two motile (capable of movement) and five non-motile."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Pathak P (2025). After 19 Years of Infertility, AI Finds 2 Sperm from 2.5 Million Images; Couple Welcomes Miracle Baby. Republic World, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor. Reports 19 egg-retrieval cycles at four fertility centres and a confirmed pregnancy at eight weeks; the headline's 'welcomes miracle baby' is ahead of its own text, which reports a pregnancy, not a birth.",
      "title": "After 19 Years of Infertility, AI Finds 2 Sperm from 2.5 Million Images; Couple Welcomes Miracle Baby",
      "url": "https://www.republicworld.com/tech/after-19-years-of-infertility-ai-finds-2-sperm-from-25-million-images-couple-welcomes-miracle-baby",
      "date": "2025-11-04",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "In just two hours, the STAR system scanned 2.5 million microscopic images of the man's semen sample and detected seven sperm, two of which were alive and motile."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "David A (2025). AI Helps Couple Conceive After 20 Years Of Infertility: A Medical Breakthrough From Columbia University. The Daily Jagran, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor.",
      "title": "AI Helps Couple Conceive After 20 Years Of Infertility: A Medical Breakthrough From Columbia University",
      "url": "https://www.thedailyjagran.com/technology/ai-helps-couple-conceive-after-20-years-of-infertility-a-medical-breakthrough-from-columbia-university-10277754",
      "date": "2025-11-04",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "the STAR system identified seven sperm cells; two of which were active."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Pall O (2025). After 19 Years Of Failed IVF Attempts, AI Helps Couple Conceive In Groundbreaking First. Mashable India, 5 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor.",
      "title": "After 19 Years Of Failed IVF Attempts, AI Helps Couple Conceive In Groundbreaking First",
      "url": "https://in.mashable.com/tech/102002/after-19-years-of-failed-ivf-attempts-ai-helps-couple-conceive-in-groundbreaking-first",
      "date": "2025-11-05",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "Experts caution that while this case is inspiring, it represents an early-stage success. Larger-scale trials are needed before AI-assisted sperm detection becomes standard clinical practice."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Anderer J (2025). AI detects invisible sperm, leads to couple's first pregnancy after 19 years. StudyFinds, 3 November 2025. Reports from the letter: 19 egg retrievals across four centres over 11 years, two testicular extractions, one fresh and one thawed egg injected with the motile sperm, two non-motile sperm injected without progression, day-3 transfer, 8 weeks with a fetal heart rate of 172, Havens Innovation Fund support, and patent applications held by Suryawanshi and Williams through Columbia.",
      "title": "AI detects invisible sperm, leads to couple's first pregnancy after 19 years",
      "url": "https://studyfinds.com/ai-detects-invisible-sperm/",
      "date": "2025-11-03",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "the first reported clinical pregnancy resulting from AI-guided sperm recovery"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Hong A-reum (2025). AI pinpoints rare sperm and enables successful IVF pregnancy in US study. Chosunbiz, 1 November 2025.",
      "title": "AI pinpoints rare sperm and enables successful IVF pregnancy in US study",
      "url": "https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-science/2025/11/01/DUEJDMOPVVAINJVKBQ2ERLB6DU/",
      "date": "2025-11-01",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "STAR analyzes more than 8 million microscopic semen images per hour."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Jo G (2025). \"AI Finds 'Miracle' Sperm\": Man with Azoospermia Achieves First Pregnancy with His Own Sperm. DongA Science, 3 November 2025.",
      "title": "\"AI Finds 'Miracle' Sperm\": Man with Azoospermia Achieves First Pregnancy with His Own Sperm",
      "url": "https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/74880",
      "date": "2025-11-03",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "A recent study reported a successful pregnancy after using AI to find two sperm in the semen of a patient with azoospermia."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Cerati F (2025). First baby thanks to artificial intelligence and robots: a breakthrough in male infertility. Il Sole 24 Ore (English edition), 3 November 2025; despite the headline, the text reports a pregnancy, not a birth.",
      "title": "First baby thanks to artificial intelligence and robots: a breakthrough in male infertility",
      "url": "https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/first-baby-thanks-to-artificial-intelligence-and-robot-breakthrough-in-male-infertility-AH8Kc0WD",
      "date": "2025-11-03",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "It only takes one healthy spermatozoon to create an embryo"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Dixit M (2025). ‘STAR is born’: Breakthrough AI helps infertile man father child after 20 years. Interesting Engineering, 31 October 2025 (HTML title: Columbia University reports first pregnancy using AI sperm recovery). Notes the result is based on a single case.",
      "title": "‘STAR is born’: Breakthrough AI helps infertile man father child after 20 years",
      "url": "https://interestingengineering.com/science/breakthrough-ai-helps-infertile-man",
      "date": "2025-10-31",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "being further evaluated through larger clinical studies"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Kohli KK (2025). First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia: Study. Medical Dialogues, 24 December 2025; confirms the Lancet item is a research letter.",
      "title": "First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia: Study",
      "url": "https://medicaldialogues.in/obstetrics-gynaecology/news/first-pregnancy-with-ai-guided-sperm-recovery-method-developed-at-columbia-study-160260",
      "date": "2025-12-24",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "The case is described in a research letter published in The Lancet."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Padhy K (2026). Finding 'hidden sperm': New technique offers hope to men previously told they were infertile. BBC Future, 30 April 2026. Reports the birth at the end of 2025, sperm found in just under 30% of the latest 175 patients, and a second STAR pregnancy (a Klinefelter patient's micro-TESE tissue).",
      "title": "Finding 'hidden sperm': New technique offers hope to men previously told they were infertile",
      "url": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile",
      "date": "2026-04-30",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "the first baby to be born using the Star system allowed a couple who had battled with infertility for almost two decades to finally have a child"
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Medaris A (2026). 'AI babies' are being conceived in 'previously impossible' ways: all about the new IVF tech. New York Post, 13 May 2026.",
      "title": "Inside the new IVF tech giving rise to 'AI babies'",
      "url": "https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/health/inside-the-new-ivf-tech-giving-rise-to-ai-babies/",
      "date": "2026-05-13",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "The first baby born to a dad with the diagnosis using STAR was born in December."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Jo G (2026). Columbia University AI STAR system finds sperm, helps couples with azoospermia conceive. DongA Science, 3 May 2026. Also reports sperm found in about 30% of 175 patients.",
      "title": "Columbia University AI STAR system finds sperm, helps couples with azoospermia conceive",
      "url": "https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/77712",
      "date": "2026-05-03",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "The first baby born through STAR is a healthy girl."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Zaleski A (2026). A.I. Is Finding Sperm Where Doctors Couldn't. The New York Times, 11 August 2026 (nytimes.com/2026/08/11/science/ai-infertile-men-sperm.html), read in the syndicated copy carried by The Star (Malaysia) on 13 August 2026. Reports 175 cases with sperm recovered 26% of the time, three systems in operation at Columbia only, and that STAR cannot help men who produce no sperm.",
      "title": "AI is finding sperm where doctors couldn't",
      "url": "https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/08/13/ai-is-finding-sperm-where-doctors-couldnt",
      "date": "2026-08-13",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "Sperm were found after the 39-year-old man’s sample was run through the Star system, and that couple now has a baby girl."
    },
    {
      "kind": "news report",
      "citation": "Vega E (2026). A New Imaging Method Finds Sperm That Standard Laboratory Review Misses, with Limited Published Results So Far. Medical Daily, 12 August 2026. Notes one published pregnancy, no controlled trials and no published success rates.",
      "title": "A New Imaging Method Finds Sperm That Standard Laboratory Review Misses, with Limited Published Results So Far",
      "url": "https://www.medicaldaily.com/ai-sperm-detection-azoospermia-star-method-evidence-477211",
      "date": "2026-08-12",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "slow, physically fatiguing and inherently incomplete: a technician cannot examine every field of view in a sample within a workable timeframe."
    },
    {
      "kind": "report",
      "citation": "INCIID, The InterNational Council on Infertility Information Dissemination (2026). STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) System. inciid.org, 14 May 2026 (modified 5 October 2026). Patient-organisation summary: YOLOv8 detector with precision 0.89 and recall 0.90, about 40 times more sperm than manual search, and patent applications filed by Columbia.",
      "title": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) System",
      "url": "https://inciid.org/star-sperm-tracking-and-recovery-system/",
      "date": "2026-05-14",
      "written_by": "independent",
      "quote": "The technology integrates high-speed imaging, artificial intelligence, microfluidics, and robotics to perform non-invasive sperm detection and retrieval."
    },
    {
      "kind": "press release",
      "citation": "Columbia University Irving Medical Center (2025). First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia. Press release via EurekAlert!, 31 October 2025. Gives 3.5 mL sample, 2.5 million images in about two hours, two viable sperm, two embryos; funding from the Havens Innovation Fund.",
      "title": "First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia",
      "url": "https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1104028",
      "date": "2025-10-31",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "You only need one healthy sperm to create an embryo"
    },
    {
      "kind": "press release",
      "citation": "Columbia University Fertility Center (2026). Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR). Service page on columbiadoctors.org, fetched 20 October 2026. Prices the analysis at $3,000 ($1,500 if no sperm are found), not billable to insurance, and reports about 28% of prior-azoospermia patients with sperm found, about 20% of mature eggs fertilising and about 18% of fertilised eggs reaching good-quality embryos.",
      "title": "Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR)",
      "url": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center/our-services/sperm-tracking-and-recovery-star",
      "date": null,
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "STAR achieved its first reported pregnancy in March 2025."
    },
    {
      "kind": "press release",
      "citation": "Columbia University Fertility Center (2025). Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility. columbiadoctors.org, dated 9 October 2025, fetched 20 October 2026. The Internet Archive copy of 1 November 2025 ends the couple's sentence 'and start a pregnancy'; the live page now reads 'and deliver a healthy baby girl', so the birth was added after that date.",
      "title": "Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility",
      "url": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/news/columbia-fertility-looks-stars-help-men-infertility",
      "date": "2025-10-09",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "Since STAR was unveiled in 2024, it has been used to help dozens of patients at the Columbia University Fertility Center."
    },
    {
      "kind": "press release",
      "citation": "Gary H (2025). Columbia Develops STAR Technology for Men with Infertility. Columbia Medicine magazine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Fall 2025.",
      "title": "Columbia Develops STAR Technology for Men with Infertility",
      "url": "https://www.vagelos.columbia.edu/about-us/columbia-medicine-magazine/archives/fall-2025/clinical-advances/columbia-develops-star-technology-men-infertility",
      "date": null,
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "like trying to find a needle hidden among a thousand haystacks—but doing it within one hour"
    },
    {
      "kind": "press release",
      "citation": "NewYork-Presbyterian (2025). Ep38: Building an AI-Powered System to Improve Fertility Success. Advances in Care podcast with Zev Williams, 7 August 2025.",
      "title": "Ep38: Building an AI-Powered System to Improve Fertility Success",
      "url": "https://www.nyp.org/advances/podcast/building-an-ai-powered-system-to-improve-fertility-success",
      "date": "2025-08-07",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "about four months pregnant with a healthy, ongoing pregnancy"
    },
    {
      "kind": "other",
      "citation": "Williams SZ, Suryawanshi H; The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (2025). Systems and Methods for Identifying and Recovering Rare Biological Cells from a Sample. US patent application US20250264398A1, priority 27 July 2022, published 21 August 2025; describes a YOLO (YOLOv4) detector, 100-500 frames per second and a flow channel 10-50 micrometres high.",
      "title": "Systems and Methods for Identifying and Recovering Rare Biological Cells from a Sample",
      "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250264398A1/en",
      "date": "2025-08-21",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "Biological cells can be identified and recovered from a sample by pumping the sample through a flow channel"
    },
    {
      "kind": "other",
      "citation": "Williams SZ, Suryawanshi H; The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (2026). Microfluidic device for recovering rare biological cells from a sample. PCT application WO2026019779A1, priority 17 July 2024, published 22 January 2026.",
      "title": "Microfluidic device for recovering rare biological cells from a sample",
      "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2026019779A1/en",
      "date": "2026-01-22",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "Sperm cells can be extracted from a sample by passing the sample through a microfluidic device, capturing images of the sample"
    },
    {
      "kind": "peer-reviewed study",
      "citation": "Gemmell LC, Suryawanshi H, Williams Z (2026). AI-based techniques in sperm detection. Current Opinion in Urology, published 22 July 2026. Review by the STAR team; abstract read on Europe PMC.",
      "title": "AI-based techniques in sperm detection",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1097/MOU.0000000000001430",
      "date": "2026-07-22",
      "written_by": "makers",
      "quote": "Early clinical data suggest these approaches may enable sperm recovery in patients previously considered sperm-negative by conventional methods."
    }
  ],
  "replication": {
    "produced_by": [
      "A man with non-obstructive azoospermia whose 3.5 mL ejaculate still held a handful of sperm (seven, two motile). Manual microscopy and two surgical extractions had missed them. He did produce some sperm.",
      "STAR's full pipeline on that sample: flow through a single-use microfluidic chip and a high-speed camera capturing about 2.5 million frames in roughly two hours. An AI detector flagged sperm among debris. A gate or robotic step diverted each flagged sperm gently enough to leave it usable.",
      "A partner with mature eggs available (one fresh, one thawed). An IVF laboratory able to inject the two motile sperm, culture two embryos and transfer them on day 3.",
      "About five years of in-house development at an academic fertility center staffed with embryologists, microfabrication, machine-learning and robotics specialists. A couple who kept trying after 15 failed IVF cycles."
    ],
    "must_hold": [
      "Some sperm must exist in the sample. STAR finds sperm, it does not create them, and it cannot help men who produce none (NYT in syndication; Williams in the Washington Post).",
      "Rates are low even at Columbia. About 28% of prior-azoospermia patients have sperm found, about 20% of mature eggs fertilize and about 18% of fertilized eggs become good-quality embryos (service page). Across 175 cases sperm were recovered in 26% (NYT) to just under 30% (BBC).",
      "The evidence is one peer-reviewed case plus clinic-reported series. As of August 2026: no controlled trial and no published success rate (Medical Daily). ICSI pioneer Gianpiero Palermo warned the approach may sell false hope (Washington Post).",
      "Access is narrow. Three systems at one New York clinic (NYT), $3,000 per analysis or $1,500 if nothing is found, not billable to insurance (service page)."
    ],
    "echoes": []
  },
  "paired_incident": null,
  "headline": "STAR finds two motile sperm; couple conceives after 19 years",
  "metric": "found 7 sperm (2 motile) in 2.5m images of a “sperm-free” sample",
  "comparator": null,
  "later": {
    "status": "scaled",
    "date": "2026-04-30",
    "note": "By April 2026 the first STAR baby, a girl, had been born at the end of 2025, STAR was in regular use at Columbia with hundreds on the waiting list, sperm had been found in just under 30% of the latest 175 patients, and a second pregnancy (from testicular tissue, a boy due July 2026) was reported; Medical Daily (August 2026) notes that only one pregnancy has been published in peer-reviewed form.",
    "quote": "Since the arrival of the first Star baby, the technology has been used regularly at the fertility centre, with the waiting list of people hoping to conceive growing to hundreds from all around the world. Based on the latest 175 patients to have used the technology, Williams says they are finding sperm in just under 30% of cases.",
    "url": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile"
  },
  "value": null,
  "developer_country": "United States",
  "deployer_country": "United States",
  "unrated_because": null,
  "brief_notes": null,
  "brief": null,
  "revisions": [
    {
      "date": "2026-10-20",
      "change": "Record drafted from the OECD Monitor entry and the cited sources.",
      "source": "https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-11-03-2f05",
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-21",
      "change": "Benefit type set to Improved Physical Health under Trustible's full taxonomy of 23 types; it was Improved Accessibility among the six first used.",
      "source": "https://trustible.ai/post/a-framework-for-measuring-the-benefits-of-ai/",
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-21",
      "change": "Added what happened since, the model version from the cited sources.",
      "source": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile; https://inciid.org/star-sperm-tracking-and-recovery-system/",
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-21",
      "change": "Country of the developer and the deployer added from the organization's own site or a registry.",
      "source": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center; https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center",
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-21",
      "change": "Prose pass: a rating reason, account, purpose, the replication conditions, the system's part rewritten in shorter sentences with abbreviations expanded; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.",
      "source": null,
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-21",
      "change": "Notes about which sources could be read were reworded for readers; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.",
      "source": null,
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-22",
      "change": "Organization name standardized to Columbia University.",
      "source": null,
      "editor": "AIBD"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-10-25",
      "change": "Separated the reported AI model from its release and corrected the system identity against the retained evidence.",
      "source": null,
      "editor": "AIBD"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "studied",
  "shade": "high",
  "claim_status": "Independently studied",
  "claim_basis": "Sources: one independent report, 22 independent news reports, two peer-reviewed studies from the makers, five press releases from the makers and two other sources from the makers. The cited evidence includes no finding by a regulator or court.",
  "profile": {
    "case_id": "AIBD-0151",
    "catalog_version": "1.0.0",
    "source_fingerprint": "24833b4ff5afe3799bee7da830cd27fc0fdb6055ebf64f1e2ac9435b9b1e57ec",
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    ],
    "source_ids": [
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      "AIBD-0151-source-0002",
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      "AIBD-0151-source-0010",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0011",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0012",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0013",
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      "AIBD-0151-source-0015",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0016",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0017",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0018",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0019",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0020",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0021",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0022",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0023",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0024",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0025",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0026",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0027",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0028",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0029",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0030",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0031",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0032",
      "AIBD-0151-source-0033"
    ],
    "families": {
      "strategic assessments": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "record_ids": []
      },
      "evaluations": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "record_ids": []
      },
      "monetary observations": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "record_ids": []
      },
      "institutional decisions": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "record_ids": []
      }
    },
    "fields": {
      "actors[]": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "developer": "Columbia University, Columbia University Irving Medical Center (team led by Zev Williams and Hemant Suryawanshi)",
            "deployer": "Columbia University, New York (used on its own patient)"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
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            "deployer"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "actors[].ownership_control": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "ai_contribution": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "ai_role": {
              "status": "assessed",
              "statement": "The detector flagged seven sperm, two motile, in roughly 2.5 million frames of a 3.5 mL sample that manual examination had called sperm-free. The microfluidic recovery step delivered them intact. Without a usable sperm the couple's remaining options were donor sperm or adoption. Everything after that was conventional IVF done by people. Embryologists injected the two motile sperm into one fresh and one thawed egg, cultured two embryos and transferred them on day 3. Obstetric care followed. Limits on the attribution: the much-quoted comparison (44 sperm in an hour after two days of manual search) concerns a different sample. Whether a longer manual search of this sample would have found the two sperm was not tested. The letter's model version is not stated in any source on record (INCIID reports a YOLOv8 architecture, Columbia's patent filings describe YOLOv4)."
            }
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
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          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "STAR detected seven sperm, including two motile sperm, in a sample that manual examination had classified as sperm-free. The system recovered them for use in IVF.",
          "editor_note": ""
        }
      },
      "ai_relationship": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "category": "benefit created",
            "ai_role": {
              "status": "assessed",
              "statement": "The detector flagged seven sperm, two motile, in roughly 2.5 million frames of a 3.5 mL sample that manual examination had called sperm-free. The microfluidic recovery step delivered them intact. Without a usable sperm the couple's remaining options were donor sperm or adoption. Everything after that was conventional IVF done by people. Embryologists injected the two motile sperm into one fresh and one thawed egg, cultured two embryos and transferred them on day 3. Obstetric care followed. Limits on the attribution: the much-quoted comparison (44 sperm in an hour after two days of manual search) concerns a different sample. Whether a longer manual search of this sample would have found the two sperm was not tested. The letter's model version is not stated in any source on record (INCIID reports a YOLOv8 architecture, Columbia's patent filings describe YOLOv4)."
            }
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ai_role",
            "category"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].alternatives": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].assessor_date": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].depth": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "ratings": [
              {
                "group": "personal",
                "depth": 3,
                "reason": "A healthy girl was born in December 2025 to a couple who had tried for 19 years through 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgeries. The husband had been told donor sperm or adoption were his only options (BBC, New York Post, DongA Science, NYT in syndication). The treatment enabled the couple to have a child after years of infertility."
              },
              {
                "group": "organizational",
                "depth": 2,
                "reason": "The case became the clinic's published proof of STAR. The service launched in late 2025 at $3,000 per analysis, three systems are in operation and the waiting list runs to hundreds. STAR was named a TIME Best Invention of 2025 (Columbia service page, NYT in syndication, BBC, TIME). A material gain for one institution."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ratings"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].display_confidence": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "structured",
          "data": {
            "confidence": "high",
            "evidence_word": "studied",
            "claim_status": "Independently studied",
            "basis": "Sources: one independent report, 22 independent news reports, two peer-reviewed studies from the makers, five press releases from the makers and two other sources from the makers. The cited evidence includes no finding by a regulator or court.",
            "interpretation": "Existing display rule preserved; the richer outcome-specific confidence question still needs review."
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "curatorial",
          "basis": "Derived from the existing case display properties; not a new evidentiary judgment.",
          "record_fields": [],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].rationale": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "ratings": [
              {
                "group": "personal",
                "depth": 3,
                "reason": "A healthy girl was born in December 2025 to a couple who had tried for 19 years through 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgeries. The husband had been told donor sperm or adoption were his only options (BBC, New York Post, DongA Science, NYT in syndication). The treatment enabled the couple to have a child after years of infertility."
              },
              {
                "group": "organizational",
                "depth": 2,
                "reason": "The case became the clinic's published proof of STAR. The service launched in late 2025 at $3,000 per analysis, three systems are in operation and the waiting list runs to hundreds. STAR was named a TIME Best Invention of 2025 (Columbia service page, NYT in syndication, BBC, TIME). A material gain for one institution."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ratings"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "The couple had a healthy daughter after 19 years of infertility, 15 failed IVF cycles, and two surgical sperm extractions. Columbia published the clinical result and introduced STAR as a paid service. The evidence establishes a major benefit for this couple, without establishing the treatment’s overall success rate."
        }
      },
      "assessments[].rubric_version": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].status_basis": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "assessments[].target": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "ratings": [
              {
                "group": "personal",
                "depth": 3,
                "reason": "A healthy girl was born in December 2025 to a couple who had tried for 19 years through 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgeries. The husband had been told donor sperm or adoption were his only options (BBC, New York Post, DongA Science, NYT in syndication). The treatment enabled the couple to have a child after years of infertility."
              },
              {
                "group": "organizational",
                "depth": 2,
                "reason": "The case became the clinic's published proof of STAR. The service launched in late 2025 at $3,000 per analysis, three systems are in operation and the waiting list runs to hundreds. STAR was named a TIME Best Invention of 2025 (Columbia service page, NYT in syndication, BBC, TIME). A material gain for one institution."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
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          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "availability": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "As described in the sources, three STAR systems operated at one New York clinic. An analysis cost US$3,000, or US$1,500 if no sperm were found, and was not billable to insurance."
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Moved the specific information already present in the entry into its applicable question. No new source review is implied.",
          "record_fields": [
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            "evidence"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "As described in the sources, three STAR systems operated at one New York clinic. An analysis cost US$3,000, or US$1,500 if no sperm were found, and was not billable to insurance."
        }
      },
      "brief": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "case_kind": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "case_links[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "claims[].evidence_links": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "claims[].evidence_strength": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "claims[].missingness": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "claims[].proposition": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "cross_border_flows[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
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        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "institutional decisions"
      },
      "decisions[].grounds": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "institutional decisions"
      },
      "decisions[].institution_task": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "institutional decisions"
      },
      "decisions[].success_criterion": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "institutional decisions"
      },
      "deployment_stage": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "economics[].amount": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].costs[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].counterfactual": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].currency_price_basis": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].gross_net": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].measure_type": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].period_unit": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].realization": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].recipient_payer": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].return_payback": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "economics[].valuation_method": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "monetary observations"
      },
      "evaluations[].ai_uplift": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].comparator": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].design": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].effect": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations",
        "display": {
          "answer": "In this sample, STAR recovered seven sperm after manual examination had found none. News reports give sperm recovery in roughly 26% to 30% of a series of 175 cases. The clinic separately reports that about 20% of mature eggs fertilize and about 18% of fertilized eggs become good-quality embryos. These figures describe different stages, not an overall chance of a live birth."
        }
      },
      "evaluations[].exposure": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].id": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].measurement_method": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].metric": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Mapped from the existing case description without a new external source review.",
          "record_fields": [
            "metric"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations",
        "display": {
          "answer": "Sperm recovered, sperm motility, pregnancy, and live birth."
        }
      },
      "evaluations[].reproduction_materials": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations"
      },
      "evaluations[].setting_sample": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations",
        "display": {
          "answer": "One 3.5 mL semen sample from a 39-year-old man with non-obstructive azoospermia."
        }
      },
      "evaluations[].uncertainty_limitations": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Mapped from the existing case description without a new external source review.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ai_role",
            "account"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "evaluations",
        "display": {
          "answer": "The comparison of 44 sperm found in an hour concerns another sample. This study did not test whether a longer manual search would have found the sperm. The evidence includes one peer-reviewed case and clinic-reported series, without a controlled trial or a published overall pregnancy success rate as of August 2026."
        }
      },
      "external_references[]": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "registry_ids": {
              "oecd_aim": "2025-11-03-2f05"
            }
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "registry_ids"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "follow_up[]": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "later": {
              "status": "scaled",
              "date": "2026-04-30",
              "note": "By April 2026 the first STAR baby, a girl, had been born at the end of 2025, STAR was in regular use at Columbia with hundreds on the waiting list, sperm had been found in just under 30% of the latest 175 patients, and a second pregnancy (from testicular tissue, a boy due July 2026) was reported; Medical Daily (August 2026) notes that only one pregnancy has been published in peer-reviewed form.",
              "quote": "Since the arrival of the first Star baby, the technology has been used regularly at the fertility centre, with the waiting list of people hoping to conceive growing to hundreds from all around the world. Based on the latest 175 patients to have used the technology, Williams says they are finding sperm in just under 30% of cases.",
              "url": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile"
            }
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
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            "later"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "human_oversight": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "Embryologists injected the two motile sperm into eggs, cultured the embryos, and transferred them. Clinicians provided subsequent obstetric care."
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Mapped from the existing case description without a new external source review.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ai_role",
            "account"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
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        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "id": "AIBD-0151"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "id"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "infrastructure_dependencies[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].beneficiaries": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "The couple who underwent treatment at Columbia University Fertility Center."
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Moved the specific information already present in the entry into its applicable question. No new source review is implied.",
          "record_fields": [
            "account"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "The couple who underwent treatment at Columbia University Fertility Center."
        }
      },
      "outcomes[].beneficiary_count": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "One couple."
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Moved the specific information already present in the entry into its applicable question. No new source review is implied.",
          "record_fields": [
            "account"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "One couple."
        }
      },
      "outcomes[].benefit_type": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "benefit_type": "Improved Physical Health",
            "taxonomy_note": "A conception after azoospermia is read as a reproductive-health outcome."
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "benefit_type",
            "taxonomy_note"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].claim": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "account": "At Columbia University Fertility Center in New York, a 39-year-old man with non-obstructive azoospermia and his 37-year-old wife had tried for 19 years. TIME calls her “Rosie”. That included 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgical sperm extractions. His 3.5 mL semen sample, read as sperm-free by manual examination, was run through STAR. It captured about 2.5 million images in roughly two hours and detected seven sperm, two motile. The two motile sperm were injected into eggs and two embryos were transferred on day 3. A pregnancy test was positive 13 days later, in March 2025. The Lancet published the case on 31 October 2025. A girl was born in December 2025.",
            "benefit_type": "Improved Physical Health"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "account",
            "benefit_type"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "STAR recovered two motile sperm that clinicians used in IVF. The couple conceived and had a daughter after 19 years of infertility."
        }
      },
      "outcomes[].distribution": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].duration": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].id": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].stakeholder_group": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "ratings": [
              {
                "group": "personal",
                "depth": 3,
                "reason": "A healthy girl was born in December 2025 to a couple who had tried for 19 years through 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgeries. The husband had been told donor sperm or adoption were his only options (BBC, New York Post, DongA Science, NYT in syndication). The treatment enabled the couple to have a child after years of infertility."
              },
              {
                "group": "organizational",
                "depth": 2,
                "reason": "The case became the clinic's published proof of STAR. The service launched in late 2025 at $3,000 per analysis, three systems are in operation and the waiting list runs to hundreds. STAR was named a TIME Best Invention of 2025 (Columbia service page, NYT in syndication, BBC, TIME). A material gain for one institution."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ratings"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].status": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].tradeoffs": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "outcomes[].unexpected": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "unexpected": false,
            "purpose": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) was built over about five years at the Columbia University Fertility Center. It finds, and recovers undamaged, the few sperm in semen samples of men with azoospermia or cryptozoospermia. They can then be used for IVF by intracytoplasmic sperm injection. This pregnancy was exactly that intended use and its first clinical result."
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "unexpected",
            "purpose"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "places[]": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "location": "New York, United States",
            "developer_country": "United States",
            "deployer_country": "United States"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "location",
            "developer_country",
            "deployer_country"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "purpose": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "purpose": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) was built over about five years at the Columbia University Fertility Center. It finds, and recovers undamaged, the few sperm in semen samples of men with azoospermia or cryptozoospermia. They can then be used for IVF by intracytoplasmic sperm injection. This pregnancy was exactly that intended use and its first clinical result."
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "purpose"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "record_dates": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "date_observed": "2025-03-01",
            "revisions": [
              {
                "date": "2026-10-20",
                "change": "Record drafted from the OECD Monitor entry and the cited sources.",
                "source": "https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-11-03-2f05",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Benefit type set to Improved Physical Health under Trustible's full taxonomy of 23 types; it was Improved Accessibility among the six first used.",
                "source": "https://trustible.ai/post/a-framework-for-measuring-the-benefits-of-ai/",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Added what happened since, the model version from the cited sources.",
                "source": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile; https://inciid.org/star-sperm-tracking-and-recovery-system/",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Country of the developer and the deployer added from the organization's own site or a registry.",
                "source": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center; https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Prose pass: a rating reason, account, purpose, the replication conditions, the system's part rewritten in shorter sentences with abbreviations expanded; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Notes about which sources could be read were reworded for readers; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-22",
                "change": "Organization name standardized to Columbia University.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-25",
                "change": "Separated the reported AI model from its release and corrected the system identity against the retained evidence.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
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            "date_observed",
            "revisions"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "replication.attempts[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "replication.conditions": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "replication": {
              "produced_by": [
                "A man with non-obstructive azoospermia whose 3.5 mL ejaculate still held a handful of sperm (seven, two motile). Manual microscopy and two surgical extractions had missed them. He did produce some sperm.",
                "STAR's full pipeline on that sample: flow through a single-use microfluidic chip and a high-speed camera capturing about 2.5 million frames in roughly two hours. An AI detector flagged sperm among debris. A gate or robotic step diverted each flagged sperm gently enough to leave it usable.",
                "A partner with mature eggs available (one fresh, one thawed). An IVF laboratory able to inject the two motile sperm, culture two embryos and transfer them on day 3.",
                "About five years of in-house development at an academic fertility center staffed with embryologists, microfabrication, machine-learning and robotics specialists. A couple who kept trying after 15 failed IVF cycles."
              ],
              "must_hold": [
                "Some sperm must exist in the sample. STAR finds sperm, it does not create them, and it cannot help men who produce none (NYT in syndication; Williams in the Washington Post).",
                "Rates are low even at Columbia. About 28% of prior-azoospermia patients have sperm found, about 20% of mature eggs fertilize and about 18% of fertilized eggs become good-quality embryos (service page). Across 175 cases sperm were recovered in 26% (NYT) to just under 30% (BBC).",
                "The evidence is one peer-reviewed case plus clinic-reported series. As of August 2026: no controlled trial and no published success rate (Medical Daily). ICSI pioneer Gianpiero Palermo warned the approach may sell false hope (Washington Post).",
                "Access is narrow. Three systems at one New York clinic (NYT), $3,000 per analysis or $1,500 if nothing is found, not billable to insurance (service page)."
              ],
              "echoes": []
            }
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "replication"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "The sample must contain sperm. A fertility laboratory must be able to recover viable sperm and use them for intracytoplasmic sperm injection, then culture and transfer embryos."
        }
      },
      "revision_history[]": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "revisions": [
              {
                "date": "2026-10-20",
                "change": "Record drafted from the OECD Monitor entry and the cited sources.",
                "source": "https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-11-03-2f05",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Benefit type set to Improved Physical Health under Trustible's full taxonomy of 23 types; it was Improved Accessibility among the six first used.",
                "source": "https://trustible.ai/post/a-framework-for-measuring-the-benefits-of-ai/",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Added what happened since, the model version from the cited sources.",
                "source": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile; https://inciid.org/star-sperm-tracking-and-recovery-system/",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Country of the developer and the deployer added from the organization's own site or a registry.",
                "source": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center; https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Prose pass: a rating reason, account, purpose, the replication conditions, the system's part rewritten in shorter sentences with abbreviations expanded; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-21",
                "change": "Notes about which sources could be read were reworded for readers; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-22",
                "change": "Organization name standardized to Columbia University.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              },
              {
                "date": "2026-10-25",
                "change": "Separated the reported AI model from its release and corrected the system identity against the retained evidence.",
                "editor": "AIBD"
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "revisions"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "sector": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "domain": "Healthcare - reproductive medicine (IVF for non-obstructive azoospermia)",
            "segment": "Academic fertility clinic and IVF laboratory"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "domain",
            "segment"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "sources[].access_version": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "sources[].citation_locator": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "evidence": [
              {
                "kind": "peer-reviewed study",
                "citation": "Suryawanshi H, Gemmell LC, Morgan S, Koustas G, Prosser RW, Fu R, Forman EJ, Williams Z (2025). First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia. The Lancet 406(10516):2213-2214, research letter published online 31 October 2025 (received 15 May, accepted 4 August 2025), PMID 41183539. Written by the team that developed STAR; the clinical figures are reported by the press release, PTI, the Free Press Journal, StudyFinds and Republic World.",
                "title": "First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia",
                "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01623-X",
                "date": "2025-10-31",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Malhi S (2025). AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case. The Washington Post, 27 June 2025. Quotes two uninvolved specialists, Robert Brannigan (ASRM president-elect) and Allison K. Rodgers, in support, and one sceptic, Gianpiero Palermo.",
                "title": "AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case",
                "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/27/ai-enabled-search-viable-sperm-infertility/",
                "date": "2025-06-27",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Researchers at the Columbia University Fertility Center say this procedure, conducted in March, amounts to the first-known use of AI-enabled conception using this particular technology."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Malhi S (2025). AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case. The Washington Post, 27 June 2025 (second quotation: Gianpiero Palermo of Weill Cornell Medicine, who pioneered intracytoplasmic sperm injection, on the risk of false hope; Brannigan asked for testing at other clinics and tracking of pregnancy rates).",
                "title": "AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case",
                "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/27/ai-enabled-search-viable-sperm-infertility/",
                "date": "2025-06-27",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "You are attracting patients who have been told they have no sperm and offering what may turn out to be false hope"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Park A (2025). Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure. TIME, 10 June 2025. First report of the pregnancy: the wife, given the pseudonym Rosie, 38, became pregnant in March 2025 after nearly 19 years and 15 unsuccessful IVF cycles.",
                "title": "Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure",
                "url": "https://time.com/7291154/doctors-report-first-pregnancy-new-ai-procedure/",
                "date": "2025-06-10",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The system can scan eight million images in about an hour."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Howard J (2025). A couple tried for 18 years to get pregnant. AI made it happen. CNN, 3 July 2025. Gives the December due date and Williams' estimate of a little under $3,000 to find, isolate and freeze sperm.",
                "title": "A couple tried for 18 years to get pregnant. AI made it happen",
                "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/health/ai-male-infertility-sperm-wellness",
                "date": "2025-07-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "hidden sperm were found, recovered and used to fertilize the wife’s eggs via IVF, and she became the first successful pregnancy enabled by the STAR method"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "FemTech World News Desk (2025). Doctors report first pregnancy using AI system to detect sperm in men previously considered infertile. FemTech World, 13 June 2025.",
                "title": "Doctors report first pregnancy using AI system to detect sperm in men previously considered infertile",
                "url": "https://www.femtechworld.co.uk/insight/doctors-report-first-pregnancy-using-ai-system-to-detect-sperm-in-men-previously-considered-infertile-aift25/",
                "date": "2025-06-13",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "scan around eight million images in an hour"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Park A (2025). Columbia University STAR method. TIME, The Best Inventions of 2025, 9 October 2025.",
                "title": "Columbia University STAR method: The Best Inventions of 2025",
                "url": "https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2025/7318439/columbia-university-star-method/",
                "date": "2025-10-09",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "After 20 years of trying, the first couple to use STAR is expecting their first child this year."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Quintanar S (2025). This AI-imaging tech from Columbia researchers is solving male infertility. Columbia Daily Spectator, 26 October 2025 (student newspaper; confirms the 15 unsuccessful IVF cycles).",
                "title": "This AI-imaging tech from Columbia researchers is solving male infertility",
                "url": "https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/10/26/this-ai-imaging-tech-from-columbia-researchers-is-solving-male-infertility/",
                "date": "2025-10-26",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "After trying to conceive for nearly two decades, a couple successfully received a positive pregnancy test after using the STAR system."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "PTI via The Economic Times (2025). How AI helped an infertile couple conceive after 19 years with just '2 sperm'. The Economic Times, 3 November 2025; one of the fourteen sources cited by the OECD Monitor. Gives 2.5 million images over two hours, seven sperm of which two viable, positive test 13 days after transfer, and a heartbeat of 172 beats per minute at eight weeks.",
                "title": "How AI helped an infertile couple conceive after 19 years with just '2 sperm'",
                "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/how-ai-helped-an-infertile-couple-conceive-after-19-years-with-just-2-sperm/articleshow/125051307.cms",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "picked out just two healthy sperm cells, helping a US couple conceive after 19 years of trying, a report in The Lancet said"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Kanchwala T (2025). How AI Helped This Couple Get Pregnant After 19-Year Wait. Free Press Journal, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor. Gives the 3.5 mL sample judged sperm-free by manual checks, day-3 transfer, positive test 13 days later and transition to standard obstetric care.",
                "title": "How AI Helped This Couple Get Pregnant After 19-Year Wait",
                "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/tech/how-ai-helped-this-couple-get-pregnant-after-19-year-wait",
                "date": "2025-11-04",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Over approximately two hours, the AI processed a staggering 2.5 million images, detecting seven individual sperm cells: two motile (capable of movement) and five non-motile."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Pathak P (2025). After 19 Years of Infertility, AI Finds 2 Sperm from 2.5 Million Images; Couple Welcomes Miracle Baby. Republic World, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor. Reports 19 egg-retrieval cycles at four fertility centres and a confirmed pregnancy at eight weeks; the headline's 'welcomes miracle baby' is ahead of its own text, which reports a pregnancy, not a birth.",
                "title": "After 19 Years of Infertility, AI Finds 2 Sperm from 2.5 Million Images; Couple Welcomes Miracle Baby",
                "url": "https://www.republicworld.com/tech/after-19-years-of-infertility-ai-finds-2-sperm-from-25-million-images-couple-welcomes-miracle-baby",
                "date": "2025-11-04",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "In just two hours, the STAR system scanned 2.5 million microscopic images of the man's semen sample and detected seven sperm, two of which were alive and motile."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "David A (2025). AI Helps Couple Conceive After 20 Years Of Infertility: A Medical Breakthrough From Columbia University. The Daily Jagran, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor.",
                "title": "AI Helps Couple Conceive After 20 Years Of Infertility: A Medical Breakthrough From Columbia University",
                "url": "https://www.thedailyjagran.com/technology/ai-helps-couple-conceive-after-20-years-of-infertility-a-medical-breakthrough-from-columbia-university-10277754",
                "date": "2025-11-04",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "the STAR system identified seven sperm cells; two of which were active."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Pall O (2025). After 19 Years Of Failed IVF Attempts, AI Helps Couple Conceive In Groundbreaking First. Mashable India, 5 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor.",
                "title": "After 19 Years Of Failed IVF Attempts, AI Helps Couple Conceive In Groundbreaking First",
                "url": "https://in.mashable.com/tech/102002/after-19-years-of-failed-ivf-attempts-ai-helps-couple-conceive-in-groundbreaking-first",
                "date": "2025-11-05",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Experts caution that while this case is inspiring, it represents an early-stage success. Larger-scale trials are needed before AI-assisted sperm detection becomes standard clinical practice."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Anderer J (2025). AI detects invisible sperm, leads to couple's first pregnancy after 19 years. StudyFinds, 3 November 2025. Reports from the letter: 19 egg retrievals across four centres over 11 years, two testicular extractions, one fresh and one thawed egg injected with the motile sperm, two non-motile sperm injected without progression, day-3 transfer, 8 weeks with a fetal heart rate of 172, Havens Innovation Fund support, and patent applications held by Suryawanshi and Williams through Columbia.",
                "title": "AI detects invisible sperm, leads to couple's first pregnancy after 19 years",
                "url": "https://studyfinds.com/ai-detects-invisible-sperm/",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "the first reported clinical pregnancy resulting from AI-guided sperm recovery"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Hong A-reum (2025). AI pinpoints rare sperm and enables successful IVF pregnancy in US study. Chosunbiz, 1 November 2025.",
                "title": "AI pinpoints rare sperm and enables successful IVF pregnancy in US study",
                "url": "https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-science/2025/11/01/DUEJDMOPVVAINJVKBQ2ERLB6DU/",
                "date": "2025-11-01",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "STAR analyzes more than 8 million microscopic semen images per hour."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Jo G (2025). \"AI Finds 'Miracle' Sperm\": Man with Azoospermia Achieves First Pregnancy with His Own Sperm. DongA Science, 3 November 2025.",
                "title": "\"AI Finds 'Miracle' Sperm\": Man with Azoospermia Achieves First Pregnancy with His Own Sperm",
                "url": "https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/74880",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "A recent study reported a successful pregnancy after using AI to find two sperm in the semen of a patient with azoospermia."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Cerati F (2025). First baby thanks to artificial intelligence and robots: a breakthrough in male infertility. Il Sole 24 Ore (English edition), 3 November 2025; despite the headline, the text reports a pregnancy, not a birth.",
                "title": "First baby thanks to artificial intelligence and robots: a breakthrough in male infertility",
                "url": "https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/first-baby-thanks-to-artificial-intelligence-and-robot-breakthrough-in-male-infertility-AH8Kc0WD",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "It only takes one healthy spermatozoon to create an embryo"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Dixit M (2025). ‘STAR is born’: Breakthrough AI helps infertile man father child after 20 years. Interesting Engineering, 31 October 2025 (HTML title: Columbia University reports first pregnancy using AI sperm recovery). Notes the result is based on a single case.",
                "title": "‘STAR is born’: Breakthrough AI helps infertile man father child after 20 years",
                "url": "https://interestingengineering.com/science/breakthrough-ai-helps-infertile-man",
                "date": "2025-10-31",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "being further evaluated through larger clinical studies"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Kohli KK (2025). First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia: Study. Medical Dialogues, 24 December 2025; confirms the Lancet item is a research letter.",
                "title": "First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia: Study",
                "url": "https://medicaldialogues.in/obstetrics-gynaecology/news/first-pregnancy-with-ai-guided-sperm-recovery-method-developed-at-columbia-study-160260",
                "date": "2025-12-24",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The case is described in a research letter published in The Lancet."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Padhy K (2026). Finding 'hidden sperm': New technique offers hope to men previously told they were infertile. BBC Future, 30 April 2026. Reports the birth at the end of 2025, sperm found in just under 30% of the latest 175 patients, and a second STAR pregnancy (a Klinefelter patient's micro-TESE tissue).",
                "title": "Finding 'hidden sperm': New technique offers hope to men previously told they were infertile",
                "url": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile",
                "date": "2026-04-30",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "the first baby to be born using the Star system allowed a couple who had battled with infertility for almost two decades to finally have a child"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Medaris A (2026). 'AI babies' are being conceived in 'previously impossible' ways: all about the new IVF tech. New York Post, 13 May 2026.",
                "title": "Inside the new IVF tech giving rise to 'AI babies'",
                "url": "https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/health/inside-the-new-ivf-tech-giving-rise-to-ai-babies/",
                "date": "2026-05-13",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The first baby born to a dad with the diagnosis using STAR was born in December."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Jo G (2026). Columbia University AI STAR system finds sperm, helps couples with azoospermia conceive. DongA Science, 3 May 2026. Also reports sperm found in about 30% of 175 patients.",
                "title": "Columbia University AI STAR system finds sperm, helps couples with azoospermia conceive",
                "url": "https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/77712",
                "date": "2026-05-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The first baby born through STAR is a healthy girl."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Zaleski A (2026). A.I. Is Finding Sperm Where Doctors Couldn't. The New York Times, 11 August 2026 (nytimes.com/2026/08/11/science/ai-infertile-men-sperm.html), read in the syndicated copy carried by The Star (Malaysia) on 13 August 2026. Reports 175 cases with sperm recovered 26% of the time, three systems in operation at Columbia only, and that STAR cannot help men who produce no sperm.",
                "title": "AI is finding sperm where doctors couldn't",
                "url": "https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/08/13/ai-is-finding-sperm-where-doctors-couldnt",
                "date": "2026-08-13",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Sperm were found after the 39-year-old man’s sample was run through the Star system, and that couple now has a baby girl."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Vega E (2026). A New Imaging Method Finds Sperm That Standard Laboratory Review Misses, with Limited Published Results So Far. Medical Daily, 12 August 2026. Notes one published pregnancy, no controlled trials and no published success rates.",
                "title": "A New Imaging Method Finds Sperm That Standard Laboratory Review Misses, with Limited Published Results So Far",
                "url": "https://www.medicaldaily.com/ai-sperm-detection-azoospermia-star-method-evidence-477211",
                "date": "2026-08-12",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "slow, physically fatiguing and inherently incomplete: a technician cannot examine every field of view in a sample within a workable timeframe."
              },
              {
                "kind": "report",
                "citation": "INCIID, The InterNational Council on Infertility Information Dissemination (2026). STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) System. inciid.org, 14 May 2026 (modified 5 October 2026). Patient-organisation summary: YOLOv8 detector with precision 0.89 and recall 0.90, about 40 times more sperm than manual search, and patent applications filed by Columbia.",
                "title": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) System",
                "url": "https://inciid.org/star-sperm-tracking-and-recovery-system/",
                "date": "2026-05-14",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The technology integrates high-speed imaging, artificial intelligence, microfluidics, and robotics to perform non-invasive sperm detection and retrieval."
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Columbia University Irving Medical Center (2025). First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia. Press release via EurekAlert!, 31 October 2025. Gives 3.5 mL sample, 2.5 million images in about two hours, two viable sperm, two embryos; funding from the Havens Innovation Fund.",
                "title": "First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia",
                "url": "https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1104028",
                "date": "2025-10-31",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "You only need one healthy sperm to create an embryo"
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Columbia University Fertility Center (2026). Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR). Service page on columbiadoctors.org, fetched 20 October 2026. Prices the analysis at $3,000 ($1,500 if no sperm are found), not billable to insurance, and reports about 28% of prior-azoospermia patients with sperm found, about 20% of mature eggs fertilising and about 18% of fertilised eggs reaching good-quality embryos.",
                "title": "Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR)",
                "url": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center/our-services/sperm-tracking-and-recovery-star",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "STAR achieved its first reported pregnancy in March 2025."
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Columbia University Fertility Center (2025). Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility. columbiadoctors.org, dated 9 October 2025, fetched 20 October 2026. The Internet Archive copy of 1 November 2025 ends the couple's sentence 'and start a pregnancy'; the live page now reads 'and deliver a healthy baby girl', so the birth was added after that date.",
                "title": "Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility",
                "url": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/news/columbia-fertility-looks-stars-help-men-infertility",
                "date": "2025-10-09",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Since STAR was unveiled in 2024, it has been used to help dozens of patients at the Columbia University Fertility Center."
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Gary H (2025). Columbia Develops STAR Technology for Men with Infertility. Columbia Medicine magazine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Fall 2025.",
                "title": "Columbia Develops STAR Technology for Men with Infertility",
                "url": "https://www.vagelos.columbia.edu/about-us/columbia-medicine-magazine/archives/fall-2025/clinical-advances/columbia-develops-star-technology-men-infertility",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "like trying to find a needle hidden among a thousand haystacks—but doing it within one hour"
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "NewYork-Presbyterian (2025). Ep38: Building an AI-Powered System to Improve Fertility Success. Advances in Care podcast with Zev Williams, 7 August 2025.",
                "title": "Ep38: Building an AI-Powered System to Improve Fertility Success",
                "url": "https://www.nyp.org/advances/podcast/building-an-ai-powered-system-to-improve-fertility-success",
                "date": "2025-08-07",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "about four months pregnant with a healthy, ongoing pregnancy"
              },
              {
                "kind": "other",
                "citation": "Williams SZ, Suryawanshi H; The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (2025). Systems and Methods for Identifying and Recovering Rare Biological Cells from a Sample. US patent application US20250264398A1, priority 27 July 2022, published 21 August 2025; describes a YOLO (YOLOv4) detector, 100-500 frames per second and a flow channel 10-50 micrometres high.",
                "title": "Systems and Methods for Identifying and Recovering Rare Biological Cells from a Sample",
                "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250264398A1/en",
                "date": "2025-08-21",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Biological cells can be identified and recovered from a sample by pumping the sample through a flow channel"
              },
              {
                "kind": "other",
                "citation": "Williams SZ, Suryawanshi H; The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (2026). Microfluidic device for recovering rare biological cells from a sample. PCT application WO2026019779A1, priority 17 July 2024, published 22 January 2026.",
                "title": "Microfluidic device for recovering rare biological cells from a sample",
                "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2026019779A1/en",
                "date": "2026-01-22",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Sperm cells can be extracted from a sample by passing the sample through a microfluidic device, capturing images of the sample"
              },
              {
                "kind": "peer-reviewed study",
                "citation": "Gemmell LC, Suryawanshi H, Williams Z (2026). AI-based techniques in sperm detection. Current Opinion in Urology, published 22 July 2026. Review by the STAR team; abstract read on Europe PMC.",
                "title": "AI-based techniques in sperm detection",
                "url": "https://doi.org/10.1097/MOU.0000000000001430",
                "date": "2026-07-22",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Early clinical data suggest these approaches may enable sperm recovery in patients previously considered sperm-negative by conventional methods."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
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          ],
          "role": "Existing evidence items, in their original order"
        },
        "provenance": {
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      "sources[].language": {
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      "sources[].relationship": {
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          "kind": "record_fields",
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            "evidence": [
              {
                "kind": "peer-reviewed study",
                "citation": "Suryawanshi H, Gemmell LC, Morgan S, Koustas G, Prosser RW, Fu R, Forman EJ, Williams Z (2025). First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia. The Lancet 406(10516):2213-2214, research letter published online 31 October 2025 (received 15 May, accepted 4 August 2025), PMID 41183539. Written by the team that developed STAR; the clinical figures are reported by the press release, PTI, the Free Press Journal, StudyFinds and Republic World.",
                "title": "First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia",
                "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01623-X",
                "date": "2025-10-31",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "First clinical pregnancy following AI-based microfluidic sperm detection and recovery in non-obstructive azoospermia"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Malhi S (2025). AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case. The Washington Post, 27 June 2025. Quotes two uninvolved specialists, Robert Brannigan (ASRM president-elect) and Allison K. Rodgers, in support, and one sceptic, Gianpiero Palermo.",
                "title": "AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case",
                "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/27/ai-enabled-search-viable-sperm-infertility/",
                "date": "2025-06-27",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Researchers at the Columbia University Fertility Center say this procedure, conducted in March, amounts to the first-known use of AI-enabled conception using this particular technology."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Malhi S (2025). AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case. The Washington Post, 27 June 2025 (second quotation: Gianpiero Palermo of Weill Cornell Medicine, who pioneered intracytoplasmic sperm injection, on the risk of false hope; Brannigan asked for testing at other clinics and tracking of pregnancy rates).",
                "title": "AI helps find viable sperm in infertility case",
                "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/27/ai-enabled-search-viable-sperm-infertility/",
                "date": "2025-06-27",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "You are attracting patients who have been told they have no sperm and offering what may turn out to be false hope"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Park A (2025). Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure. TIME, 10 June 2025. First report of the pregnancy: the wife, given the pseudonym Rosie, 38, became pregnant in March 2025 after nearly 19 years and 15 unsuccessful IVF cycles.",
                "title": "Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure",
                "url": "https://time.com/7291154/doctors-report-first-pregnancy-new-ai-procedure/",
                "date": "2025-06-10",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The system can scan eight million images in about an hour."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Howard J (2025). A couple tried for 18 years to get pregnant. AI made it happen. CNN, 3 July 2025. Gives the December due date and Williams' estimate of a little under $3,000 to find, isolate and freeze sperm.",
                "title": "A couple tried for 18 years to get pregnant. AI made it happen",
                "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/health/ai-male-infertility-sperm-wellness",
                "date": "2025-07-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "hidden sperm were found, recovered and used to fertilize the wife’s eggs via IVF, and she became the first successful pregnancy enabled by the STAR method"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "FemTech World News Desk (2025). Doctors report first pregnancy using AI system to detect sperm in men previously considered infertile. FemTech World, 13 June 2025.",
                "title": "Doctors report first pregnancy using AI system to detect sperm in men previously considered infertile",
                "url": "https://www.femtechworld.co.uk/insight/doctors-report-first-pregnancy-using-ai-system-to-detect-sperm-in-men-previously-considered-infertile-aift25/",
                "date": "2025-06-13",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "scan around eight million images in an hour"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Park A (2025). Columbia University STAR method. TIME, The Best Inventions of 2025, 9 October 2025.",
                "title": "Columbia University STAR method: The Best Inventions of 2025",
                "url": "https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2025/7318439/columbia-university-star-method/",
                "date": "2025-10-09",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "After 20 years of trying, the first couple to use STAR is expecting their first child this year."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Quintanar S (2025). This AI-imaging tech from Columbia researchers is solving male infertility. Columbia Daily Spectator, 26 October 2025 (student newspaper; confirms the 15 unsuccessful IVF cycles).",
                "title": "This AI-imaging tech from Columbia researchers is solving male infertility",
                "url": "https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/10/26/this-ai-imaging-tech-from-columbia-researchers-is-solving-male-infertility/",
                "date": "2025-10-26",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "After trying to conceive for nearly two decades, a couple successfully received a positive pregnancy test after using the STAR system."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "PTI via The Economic Times (2025). How AI helped an infertile couple conceive after 19 years with just '2 sperm'. The Economic Times, 3 November 2025; one of the fourteen sources cited by the OECD Monitor. Gives 2.5 million images over two hours, seven sperm of which two viable, positive test 13 days after transfer, and a heartbeat of 172 beats per minute at eight weeks.",
                "title": "How AI helped an infertile couple conceive after 19 years with just '2 sperm'",
                "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/how-ai-helped-an-infertile-couple-conceive-after-19-years-with-just-2-sperm/articleshow/125051307.cms",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "picked out just two healthy sperm cells, helping a US couple conceive after 19 years of trying, a report in The Lancet said"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Kanchwala T (2025). How AI Helped This Couple Get Pregnant After 19-Year Wait. Free Press Journal, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor. Gives the 3.5 mL sample judged sperm-free by manual checks, day-3 transfer, positive test 13 days later and transition to standard obstetric care.",
                "title": "How AI Helped This Couple Get Pregnant After 19-Year Wait",
                "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/tech/how-ai-helped-this-couple-get-pregnant-after-19-year-wait",
                "date": "2025-11-04",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Over approximately two hours, the AI processed a staggering 2.5 million images, detecting seven individual sperm cells: two motile (capable of movement) and five non-motile."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Pathak P (2025). After 19 Years of Infertility, AI Finds 2 Sperm from 2.5 Million Images; Couple Welcomes Miracle Baby. Republic World, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor. Reports 19 egg-retrieval cycles at four fertility centres and a confirmed pregnancy at eight weeks; the headline's 'welcomes miracle baby' is ahead of its own text, which reports a pregnancy, not a birth.",
                "title": "After 19 Years of Infertility, AI Finds 2 Sperm from 2.5 Million Images; Couple Welcomes Miracle Baby",
                "url": "https://www.republicworld.com/tech/after-19-years-of-infertility-ai-finds-2-sperm-from-25-million-images-couple-welcomes-miracle-baby",
                "date": "2025-11-04",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "In just two hours, the STAR system scanned 2.5 million microscopic images of the man's semen sample and detected seven sperm, two of which were alive and motile."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "David A (2025). AI Helps Couple Conceive After 20 Years Of Infertility: A Medical Breakthrough From Columbia University. The Daily Jagran, 4 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor.",
                "title": "AI Helps Couple Conceive After 20 Years Of Infertility: A Medical Breakthrough From Columbia University",
                "url": "https://www.thedailyjagran.com/technology/ai-helps-couple-conceive-after-20-years-of-infertility-a-medical-breakthrough-from-columbia-university-10277754",
                "date": "2025-11-04",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "the STAR system identified seven sperm cells; two of which were active."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Pall O (2025). After 19 Years Of Failed IVF Attempts, AI Helps Couple Conceive In Groundbreaking First. Mashable India, 5 November 2025; cited by the OECD Monitor.",
                "title": "After 19 Years Of Failed IVF Attempts, AI Helps Couple Conceive In Groundbreaking First",
                "url": "https://in.mashable.com/tech/102002/after-19-years-of-failed-ivf-attempts-ai-helps-couple-conceive-in-groundbreaking-first",
                "date": "2025-11-05",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Experts caution that while this case is inspiring, it represents an early-stage success. Larger-scale trials are needed before AI-assisted sperm detection becomes standard clinical practice."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Anderer J (2025). AI detects invisible sperm, leads to couple's first pregnancy after 19 years. StudyFinds, 3 November 2025. Reports from the letter: 19 egg retrievals across four centres over 11 years, two testicular extractions, one fresh and one thawed egg injected with the motile sperm, two non-motile sperm injected without progression, day-3 transfer, 8 weeks with a fetal heart rate of 172, Havens Innovation Fund support, and patent applications held by Suryawanshi and Williams through Columbia.",
                "title": "AI detects invisible sperm, leads to couple's first pregnancy after 19 years",
                "url": "https://studyfinds.com/ai-detects-invisible-sperm/",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "the first reported clinical pregnancy resulting from AI-guided sperm recovery"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Hong A-reum (2025). AI pinpoints rare sperm and enables successful IVF pregnancy in US study. Chosunbiz, 1 November 2025.",
                "title": "AI pinpoints rare sperm and enables successful IVF pregnancy in US study",
                "url": "https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-science/2025/11/01/DUEJDMOPVVAINJVKBQ2ERLB6DU/",
                "date": "2025-11-01",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "STAR analyzes more than 8 million microscopic semen images per hour."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Jo G (2025). \"AI Finds 'Miracle' Sperm\": Man with Azoospermia Achieves First Pregnancy with His Own Sperm. DongA Science, 3 November 2025.",
                "title": "\"AI Finds 'Miracle' Sperm\": Man with Azoospermia Achieves First Pregnancy with His Own Sperm",
                "url": "https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/74880",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "A recent study reported a successful pregnancy after using AI to find two sperm in the semen of a patient with azoospermia."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Cerati F (2025). First baby thanks to artificial intelligence and robots: a breakthrough in male infertility. Il Sole 24 Ore (English edition), 3 November 2025; despite the headline, the text reports a pregnancy, not a birth.",
                "title": "First baby thanks to artificial intelligence and robots: a breakthrough in male infertility",
                "url": "https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/first-baby-thanks-to-artificial-intelligence-and-robot-breakthrough-in-male-infertility-AH8Kc0WD",
                "date": "2025-11-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "It only takes one healthy spermatozoon to create an embryo"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Dixit M (2025). ‘STAR is born’: Breakthrough AI helps infertile man father child after 20 years. Interesting Engineering, 31 October 2025 (HTML title: Columbia University reports first pregnancy using AI sperm recovery). Notes the result is based on a single case.",
                "title": "‘STAR is born’: Breakthrough AI helps infertile man father child after 20 years",
                "url": "https://interestingengineering.com/science/breakthrough-ai-helps-infertile-man",
                "date": "2025-10-31",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "being further evaluated through larger clinical studies"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Kohli KK (2025). First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia: Study. Medical Dialogues, 24 December 2025; confirms the Lancet item is a research letter.",
                "title": "First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia: Study",
                "url": "https://medicaldialogues.in/obstetrics-gynaecology/news/first-pregnancy-with-ai-guided-sperm-recovery-method-developed-at-columbia-study-160260",
                "date": "2025-12-24",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The case is described in a research letter published in The Lancet."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Padhy K (2026). Finding 'hidden sperm': New technique offers hope to men previously told they were infertile. BBC Future, 30 April 2026. Reports the birth at the end of 2025, sperm found in just under 30% of the latest 175 patients, and a second STAR pregnancy (a Klinefelter patient's micro-TESE tissue).",
                "title": "Finding 'hidden sperm': New technique offers hope to men previously told they were infertile",
                "url": "https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260429-finding-hidden-sperm-new-technology-offers-hope-to-men-previously-told-they-were-infertile",
                "date": "2026-04-30",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "the first baby to be born using the Star system allowed a couple who had battled with infertility for almost two decades to finally have a child"
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Medaris A (2026). 'AI babies' are being conceived in 'previously impossible' ways: all about the new IVF tech. New York Post, 13 May 2026.",
                "title": "Inside the new IVF tech giving rise to 'AI babies'",
                "url": "https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/health/inside-the-new-ivf-tech-giving-rise-to-ai-babies/",
                "date": "2026-05-13",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The first baby born to a dad with the diagnosis using STAR was born in December."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Jo G (2026). Columbia University AI STAR system finds sperm, helps couples with azoospermia conceive. DongA Science, 3 May 2026. Also reports sperm found in about 30% of 175 patients.",
                "title": "Columbia University AI STAR system finds sperm, helps couples with azoospermia conceive",
                "url": "https://www.dongascience.com/en/news/77712",
                "date": "2026-05-03",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The first baby born through STAR is a healthy girl."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Zaleski A (2026). A.I. Is Finding Sperm Where Doctors Couldn't. The New York Times, 11 August 2026 (nytimes.com/2026/08/11/science/ai-infertile-men-sperm.html), read in the syndicated copy carried by The Star (Malaysia) on 13 August 2026. Reports 175 cases with sperm recovered 26% of the time, three systems in operation at Columbia only, and that STAR cannot help men who produce no sperm.",
                "title": "AI is finding sperm where doctors couldn't",
                "url": "https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/08/13/ai-is-finding-sperm-where-doctors-couldnt",
                "date": "2026-08-13",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "Sperm were found after the 39-year-old man’s sample was run through the Star system, and that couple now has a baby girl."
              },
              {
                "kind": "news report",
                "citation": "Vega E (2026). A New Imaging Method Finds Sperm That Standard Laboratory Review Misses, with Limited Published Results So Far. Medical Daily, 12 August 2026. Notes one published pregnancy, no controlled trials and no published success rates.",
                "title": "A New Imaging Method Finds Sperm That Standard Laboratory Review Misses, with Limited Published Results So Far",
                "url": "https://www.medicaldaily.com/ai-sperm-detection-azoospermia-star-method-evidence-477211",
                "date": "2026-08-12",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "slow, physically fatiguing and inherently incomplete: a technician cannot examine every field of view in a sample within a workable timeframe."
              },
              {
                "kind": "report",
                "citation": "INCIID, The InterNational Council on Infertility Information Dissemination (2026). STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) System. inciid.org, 14 May 2026 (modified 5 October 2026). Patient-organisation summary: YOLOv8 detector with precision 0.89 and recall 0.90, about 40 times more sperm than manual search, and patent applications filed by Columbia.",
                "title": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) System",
                "url": "https://inciid.org/star-sperm-tracking-and-recovery-system/",
                "date": "2026-05-14",
                "written_by": "independent",
                "quote": "The technology integrates high-speed imaging, artificial intelligence, microfluidics, and robotics to perform non-invasive sperm detection and retrieval."
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Columbia University Irving Medical Center (2025). First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia. Press release via EurekAlert!, 31 October 2025. Gives 3.5 mL sample, 2.5 million images in about two hours, two viable sperm, two embryos; funding from the Havens Innovation Fund.",
                "title": "First pregnancy with AI-guided sperm recovery method developed at Columbia",
                "url": "https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1104028",
                "date": "2025-10-31",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "You only need one healthy sperm to create an embryo"
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Columbia University Fertility Center (2026). Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR). Service page on columbiadoctors.org, fetched 20 October 2026. Prices the analysis at $3,000 ($1,500 if no sperm are found), not billable to insurance, and reports about 28% of prior-azoospermia patients with sperm found, about 20% of mature eggs fertilising and about 18% of fertilised eggs reaching good-quality embryos.",
                "title": "Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR)",
                "url": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/obstetrics-gynecology/our-services/columbia-university-fertility-center/our-services/sperm-tracking-and-recovery-star",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "STAR achieved its first reported pregnancy in March 2025."
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Columbia University Fertility Center (2025). Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility. columbiadoctors.org, dated 9 October 2025, fetched 20 October 2026. The Internet Archive copy of 1 November 2025 ends the couple's sentence 'and start a pregnancy'; the live page now reads 'and deliver a healthy baby girl', so the birth was added after that date.",
                "title": "Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility",
                "url": "https://www.columbiadoctors.org/news/columbia-fertility-looks-stars-help-men-infertility",
                "date": "2025-10-09",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Since STAR was unveiled in 2024, it has been used to help dozens of patients at the Columbia University Fertility Center."
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "Gary H (2025). Columbia Develops STAR Technology for Men with Infertility. Columbia Medicine magazine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Fall 2025.",
                "title": "Columbia Develops STAR Technology for Men with Infertility",
                "url": "https://www.vagelos.columbia.edu/about-us/columbia-medicine-magazine/archives/fall-2025/clinical-advances/columbia-develops-star-technology-men-infertility",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "like trying to find a needle hidden among a thousand haystacks—but doing it within one hour"
              },
              {
                "kind": "press release",
                "citation": "NewYork-Presbyterian (2025). Ep38: Building an AI-Powered System to Improve Fertility Success. Advances in Care podcast with Zev Williams, 7 August 2025.",
                "title": "Ep38: Building an AI-Powered System to Improve Fertility Success",
                "url": "https://www.nyp.org/advances/podcast/building-an-ai-powered-system-to-improve-fertility-success",
                "date": "2025-08-07",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "about four months pregnant with a healthy, ongoing pregnancy"
              },
              {
                "kind": "other",
                "citation": "Williams SZ, Suryawanshi H; The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (2025). Systems and Methods for Identifying and Recovering Rare Biological Cells from a Sample. US patent application US20250264398A1, priority 27 July 2022, published 21 August 2025; describes a YOLO (YOLOv4) detector, 100-500 frames per second and a flow channel 10-50 micrometres high.",
                "title": "Systems and Methods for Identifying and Recovering Rare Biological Cells from a Sample",
                "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250264398A1/en",
                "date": "2025-08-21",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Biological cells can be identified and recovered from a sample by pumping the sample through a flow channel"
              },
              {
                "kind": "other",
                "citation": "Williams SZ, Suryawanshi H; The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (2026). Microfluidic device for recovering rare biological cells from a sample. PCT application WO2026019779A1, priority 17 July 2024, published 22 January 2026.",
                "title": "Microfluidic device for recovering rare biological cells from a sample",
                "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2026019779A1/en",
                "date": "2026-01-22",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Sperm cells can be extracted from a sample by passing the sample through a microfluidic device, capturing images of the sample"
              },
              {
                "kind": "peer-reviewed study",
                "citation": "Gemmell LC, Suryawanshi H, Williams Z (2026). AI-based techniques in sperm detection. Current Opinion in Urology, published 22 July 2026. Review by the STAR team; abstract read on Europe PMC.",
                "title": "AI-based techniques in sperm detection",
                "url": "https://doi.org/10.1097/MOU.0000000000001430",
                "date": "2026-07-22",
                "written_by": "makers",
                "quote": "Early clinical data suggest these approaches may enable sperm recovery in patients previously considered sperm-negative by conventional methods."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "evidence"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "sources[].upstream_sources": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "strategic_assessments[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "family": "strategic assessments"
      },
      "summary": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "summary": "STAR AI found 7 sperm (2 motile) in 2.5m images of a “sperm-free” sample; a couple infertile for 19 years conceived and had a girl.",
            "account": "At Columbia University Fertility Center in New York, a 39-year-old man with non-obstructive azoospermia and his 37-year-old wife had tried for 19 years. TIME calls her “Rosie”. That included 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgical sperm extractions. His 3.5 mL semen sample, read as sperm-free by manual examination, was run through STAR. It captured about 2.5 million images in roughly two hours and detected seven sperm, two motile. The two motile sperm were injected into eggs and two embryos were transferred on day 3. A pregnancy test was positive 13 days later, in March 2025. The Lancet published the case on 31 October 2025. A girl was born in December 2025."
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "summary",
            "account"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "systems[].autonomy_permissions": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "systems[].component_role": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "The detector located sperm in microscope images so that the retrieval system could recover them."
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Restated the mechanical task already described in the existing system and AI-role fields. No new source review is claimed.",
          "record_fields": [
            "system",
            "ai_role"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "systems[].deployment_configuration": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "systems[].inputs_outputs": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "systems[].model_name": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "A detector from the YOLO family."
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Separated the model, software, hardware, or operation already described in the existing record. No new source review is claimed.",
          "record_fields": [
            "model_version",
            "system",
            "ai_role"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "A detector from the YOLO family.",
          "editor_note": "INCIID names “YOLOv8 Architecture” (reference 25), whereas Columbia’s patent illustrates a “YOLOv4 object detection model” (reference 31, figures 4–5). Neither source identifies the version used for this pregnancy."
        }
      },
      "systems[].model_version": {
        "state": "unresolved",
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved the conflicting architecture descriptions already documented in the existing entry.",
          "record_fields": [
            "ai_role"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "reason": "INCIID names YOLOv8 while the cited patent filings describe YOLOv4; the clinical detector release is not established.",
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "Exact detector release not established.",
          "editor_note": ""
        }
      },
      "systems[].product_name": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "system": "STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery): a semen sample flows through a single-use microfluidic chip while a high-speed camera (about 300 frames per second, over 8 million images an hour) images it; an AI object-detection model flags sperm among cellular debris in real time and a microfluidic gate or robotic step diverts each flagged sperm into a droplet for immediate injection or freezing"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "system"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "systems[].provider": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "structured",
          "data": {
            "application_developer": "Columbia University, Columbia University Irving Medical Center (team led by Zev Williams and Hemant Suryawanshi)"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Mapped from the existing case description without a new external source review.",
          "record_fields": [
            "developer"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "taxonomy_crosswalks[]": {
        "state": "not_assessed",
        "review_state": "not_assessed",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "title": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "title": "Columbia's STAR system found two motile sperm in a sample manual checks had called sperm-free; after 19 years of infertility the couple conceived and had a daughter",
            "headline": "STAR finds two motile sperm; couple conceives after 19 years"
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "title",
            "headline"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial"
      },
      "version": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "identifiers",
          "identifiers": [
            "24833b4ff5afe3799bee7da830cd27fc0fdb6055ebf64f1e2ac9435b9b1e57ec"
          ],
          "role": "SHA-256 of normalized original case data"
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "curatorial",
          "basis": "Deterministic content version assigned by the local migration.",
          "record_fields": [],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "complete"
      },
      "workflow": {
        "state": "value_present",
        "value": {
          "kind": "record_fields",
          "fields": {
            "account": "At Columbia University Fertility Center in New York, a 39-year-old man with non-obstructive azoospermia and his 37-year-old wife had tried for 19 years. TIME calls her “Rosie”. That included 15 failed IVF cycles and two surgical sperm extractions. His 3.5 mL semen sample, read as sperm-free by manual examination, was run through STAR. It captured about 2.5 million images in roughly two hours and detected seven sperm, two motile. The two motile sperm were injected into eggs and two embryos were transferred on day 3. A pregnancy test was positive 13 days later, in March 2025. The Lancet published the case on 31 October 2025. A girl was born in December 2025.",
            "replication": {
              "produced_by": [
                "A man with non-obstructive azoospermia whose 3.5 mL ejaculate still held a handful of sperm (seven, two motile). Manual microscopy and two surgical extractions had missed them. He did produce some sperm.",
                "STAR's full pipeline on that sample: flow through a single-use microfluidic chip and a high-speed camera capturing about 2.5 million frames in roughly two hours. An AI detector flagged sperm among debris. A gate or robotic step diverted each flagged sperm gently enough to leave it usable.",
                "A partner with mature eggs available (one fresh, one thawed). An IVF laboratory able to inject the two motile sperm, culture two embryos and transfer them on day 3.",
                "About five years of in-house development at an academic fertility center staffed with embryologists, microfabrication, machine-learning and robotics specialists. A couple who kept trying after 15 failed IVF cycles."
              ],
              "must_hold": [
                "Some sperm must exist in the sample. STAR finds sperm, it does not create them, and it cannot help men who produce none (NYT in syndication; Williams in the Washington Post).",
                "Rates are low even at Columbia. About 28% of prior-azoospermia patients have sperm found, about 20% of mature eggs fertilize and about 18% of fertilized eggs become good-quality embryos (service page). Across 175 cases sperm were recovered in 26% (NYT) to just under 30% (BBC).",
                "The evidence is one peer-reviewed case plus clinic-reported series. As of August 2026: no controlled trial and no published success rate (Medical Daily). ICSI pioneer Gianpiero Palermo warned the approach may sell false hope (Washington Post).",
                "Access is narrow. Three systems at one New York clinic (NYT), $3,000 per analysis or $1,500 if nothing is found, not billable to insurance (service page)."
              ],
              "echoes": []
            }
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "kind": "legacy_record",
          "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.",
          "record_fields": [
            "account",
            "replication"
          ],
          "source_refs": []
        },
        "review_state": "record_mapped",
        "coverage": "partial",
        "display": {
          "answer": "STAR examined about 2.5 million images of a sample that manual examiners had considered sperm-free. It recovered seven sperm, two of them motile. Embryologists injected the two motile sperm into eggs, cultured two embryos, and transferred them on day three."
        }
      }
    },
    "summary": {
      "total": 91,
      "addressed": 91,
      "known": 35,
      "reviewed": 0,
      "record_mapped": 36,
      "not_assessed": 55,
      "complete": false,
      "by_state": {
        "value_present": 35,
        "not_reported": 0,
        "unresolved": 1,
        "not_assessed": 55,
        "not_applicable": 0,
        "withheld": 0,
        "source_unavailable": 0
      }
    }
  }
}