Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive
Michael Polansky, the founder of AI-and-biology startup Outer Biosciences and partner of Lady Gaga, has revealed that his company has spent years developing methods to keep living human tissue alive outside the body, reportedly for over a month at a time, in order to train an AI model on it. The work had been kept private until now, and it marks an unusual crossover between cutting-edge biotech research and Polansky's high-profile public life alongside the singer, whom he also works with professionally on tours and other projects.
Polansky, a Harvard-educated applied mathematics and computer science graduate, previously worked at hedge fund Bridgewater Associates before joining Sean Parker, first at Founders Fund and later running Parker's family office, where he helped establish the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He shifted focus during the Covid pandemic, a period that coincided with the deepening of his relationship with Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga), whom he met in 2019. He went on to found Outer Biosciences, which is now positioning its ability to sustain living skin tissue as a foundation for training AI models, though further technical and commercial details of the project were not fully outlined in the available report.
- Michael Polansky's startup Outer Biosciences keeps human skin alive outside the body
- The living tissue has been sustained for over a month to train an AI model
- Polansky is also Lady Gaga's business and romantic partner
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Michael Polansky is best known publicly as the partner of Lady Gaga, whom he met in 2019 and works alongside on tours and other projects. Away from that spotlight, he has a background in applied mathematics and computer science, and has worked at hedge fund Bridgewater Associates and alongside tech investor Sean Parker, including helping set up the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
He is also the founder of Outer Biosciences, an AI-and-biology startup. The company has spent years developing techniques to keep living human skin tissue alive outside the body, reportedly for more than a month at a stretch, with the aim of using that tissue to train an AI model.
This crossover between Polansky's biotech work and his high public profile is notable because the project had been kept private until now, and because it sits at an unusual intersection of artificial intelligence and biological research whose full technical and commercial aims have not yet been detailed.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of this research would argue that training AI models on genuinely living human tissue, rather than on animal models or synthetic simulations, could yield far more accurate insights into wound healing, drug response and skin disease than existing methods allow. They would point to Polansky's serious scientific pedigree, including his role in founding the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, as evidence that this is a considered scientific pursuit rather than a novelty project. From this view, years of quiet, careful development before going public reflects responsible scientific practice, allowing the underlying methods to be refined before facing scrutiny, rather than any attempt at concealment.
The case against
Those more cautious about this work would argue that sustaining living human tissue outside the body for over a month specifically to train an AI model raises serious and largely untested bioethical questions, including how the tissue was sourced, what consent was obtained, and how such material should be regulated once commercialised. They would note that the project was kept private for years and has only become public via Polansky's high-profile relationship, and argue that novel biotechnology blending living human matter with AI development deserves independent oversight and public debate before it is framed as an unambiguous advance. For this side, the values at stake are transparency, informed consent and caution in the face of scientific capabilities that outpace existing ethical and regulatory frameworks.
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