A couple who had been trying to have a child for nearly two decades is now expecting their first baby—thanks to artificial intelligence. In a major breakthrough, AI was able to accurately detect the “hidden sperm” of a man who had previously been diagnosed as infertile, making it possible for them to finally prepare for the arrival of their child.
About 15% of infertile men suffer from a condition called azoospermia, in which little to no sperm is found in the semen. Dr. Zev Williams, director of the fertility center at Columbia University, explained:
“A semen sample can appear completely normal, but under the microscope, it may just be a mass of dead cells with no sign of sperm.”
Until now, treatment options for this issue were limited to using donor sperm or undergoing painful surgical procedures to extract sperm directly from the testes.
AI’s New Contribution to Humanity: Treating Infertility
However, inspired by technologies used in astronomy, Williams and his team developed a system called STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery). This system utilizes algorithms similar to those used for detecting distant planets—essentially searching for “life” on a different scale by locating sperm among disorganized cells.
While embryologists had failed to find any sperm after two days of searching, the STAR system was able to identify 44 sperm in under an hour.
In March 2025, a woman became the first to conceive using this method after 19 years of trying to have a child with her husband, who suffers from azoospermia. Interestingly, the process was very simple for the husband—he only had to provide a semen sample to the lab.
Researchers scanned the sample using advanced imaging techniques and produced over 8 million images in less than an hour. The AI then successfully identified three live sperm cells within that massive dataset.
The woman is now five months pregnant, and her baby is expected to be born in December.
Currently, the STAR system is only available at Columbia University’s fertility center. Williams told CNN that the entire process of locating, extracting, and freezing sperm using this system costs under $3,000—compared to traditional IVF procedures in the U.S., which typically cost between $12,000 and $15,000 and can reach up to $30,000 with medications and genetic testing included.
