Health special 3: How far could artificial intelligence transform medicine?

The Briefing Room

Machine learning has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Bigger, more powerful computers can crunch ever more amounts of data, analysing complex information just as accurately, it’s claimed, as the best specialists and at speeds humans can never achieve. With the potential to make a significant difference to healthcare - helping to diagnose disease, summarise patients’ medical notes, even predict health conditions years before any symptoms appear. But how long before the potential benefits become a reality? And what are the possible pitfalls? Join David Aaronovitch and a panel of guests to find out.

Guests: Madhumita Murgia, Artificial Intelligence Editor, Financial Times and author of Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI Mihaela van der Schaar, Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine at Cambridge University Pearse Keane, Consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and a Professor of Artificial Medical Intelligence at UCL Dr Jessica Morley, Post-doctoral researcher at the Digital Ethics Centre, Yale University

Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Sally Abrahams and Rosamund Jones Sound engineers: Dafydd Evans and Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon