The Briefing Room BBC Radio 4

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

Surveys suggest that at least one in four of us will suffer from anxiety and depression during our lifetimes. The prevalence of these conditions is one of the reasons given for poor school attendance. And it's estimated that these mental health disorders account for 12.5% of all sickness leave in the UK. So what’s caused such an explosion in mental distress and what, if anything, can be done to bring down the numbers? Join David Aaronovitch and a panel of guests to find out.
Guests:
Professor Jennifer Wild, a consultant clinical psychologist and professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford
Dr Jennifer Dykxhoorn, a psychiatric epidemiologist at University College, London
Dr Sharon Neufeld from Cambridge University Medical School and
Thalia Eley, professor of developmental behavioural genetics at Kings College, London
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Rosamund Jones and Sally Abrahams
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon

Half the UK population will get cancer during their lifetime - and rates are rising. Each year, around 385,000 people in the UK are diagnosed and around 167,00 lives are lost to the disease. But scientists are developing new therapies, including personalised vaccines and targeted drugs, that attack cancer cells directly and more effectively. It's hoped this pioneering work could lead to better survival rates.
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss promising developments in cancer care - to find out how significant they might be.
Guests:
Professor Charles Swanton, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK and deputy clinical director at the Francis Crick Institute;
Dr Olivia Rossanese, Director of the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery at the Institute of Cancer Research;
Christian Ottensmeier, Professor of Immuno-Oncology at the University of Liverpool;
Professor Alan Melcher, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Rosamund Jones and Sally Abrahams
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon

2024 is the year of elections and already hundreds of millions of people around the world have been to the polls. A few months ago The Briefing Room looked ahead to elections in South Africa and India. Both have since delivered shocks to their ruling parties which failed to win parliamentary majorities. So why did the main parties in both countries do worse than expected? And what does this mean for the governments they’ve formed and the immediate future of both South Africa and India?
Guests:
David Everatt, Professor at the Wits School of Governance in Johannesburg
Dr Ayesha Omar, British Academy international fellow at SOAS.
Rohan Venkat, editor of the “India Inside Out” newsletter
Louise Tillin, Professor of Politics in the India Institute at King's College London.
Produced by: Kirsteen Knight and Caroline Bayley
Edited by: Richard Vadon
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman

David Aaronovitch and guests dissect Sudan's ongoing civil war. This conflict is now one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. How can it be brought to an end?
Guests:
James Copnall - presenter of Newsday on the BBC World Service and former BBC Sudan correspondent
Mohanad Hashim - Sudanese journalist working on Newshour on the BBC World Service
Dame Rosalind Marsden - associate fellow of the Africa programme at Chatham House and former UK ambassador to Sudan
Professor Alex De Waal - executive director of the World Peace Foundation
Produced by: Kirsteen Knight, Caroline Bayley and Ben Carter
Edited by: Richard Vadon and Richard Fenton-Smith
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar and Andy Fell
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman

David Aaronovitch and guests examine Joe Biden's ceasefire deal and ask whether - despite some positive noises from both sides - Israel and Hamas are interested in making it work.
Guests:
David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations
Anshel Pfeffer, columnist and Israel correspondent at The Economist
Lina Khatib, Director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London
Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington
Production team: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight, Sally Abrahams and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: Sarah Hockley