AI helped a couple get pregnant after 19 years

DOCTORS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY FERTILITY CENTER have reported the first pregnancy using a new AI system, in a couple who had tried to conceive for nearly two decades.

- BY ALICE PARK

The pregnancy was possible because of an advance developed by Dr. Zev Williams, director of the center, to address azoospermia, or a lack of detectable sperm in semen. About 40% of infertility in the U.S. is due to a male-related issue, and azoospermia is responsible for about 10% of those cases. Until recently, there was little doctors could do to address the lack of sperm needed to fertilize an egg, other than using donor sperm.

Williams and his team spent five years developing a novel system that combined an AI algorithm for detecting sperm with a fluidic chip that passed the semen sample through a tiny tubule on a plastic chip. If the AI picked up sperm (the smallest cell in the body), that tiny portion of semen would be directed to a separate tubule and collected. The few sperm isolated in this way could then be stored, frozen, or used to fertilize an egg.