To detect alzheimers. Lara visits the Virtual Reality world helping in the early diagnosis of dementia. Oh, im quite close. Yeah, well. Well, relatively close. Maybe im not that close at all. Would you be happy with your kids taking this kind of Science Lesson . With the right amount of pressure, the Great Pyramid could generate. A tremendous amount of electricity. Well investigate the ai targeting children with disinformation. And were in india to see how the diamond industry could become more sustainable by growing precious stones in a lab. The Royal Institution of great britain. For the past two centuries, this independent charity has sought to connect as many people as possible with the wonders of science. Famed for its christmas lectures, which are aired by the bbc, the Royal Institutions iconic theatre is a place where leading scientists regularly share their work with live audiences. One area of Scientific Research which affects us all is in the diagnosis and treatment of serious illnesses. Now, the great thing is science has helped us live longer, but the flipside of that is that we are now discovering illnesses which mainly only occur in old age. Yeah, many of us have watched the decline of loved ones with dementia, and whilst theres no cure, there are treatments to help manage the symptoms. Its really important to diagnose it early, though, and technology is helping to play its part in that. Since the 1940s, gps have been Testing Memory with pen and paper. And the results of that test are confirmed by a lumbar puncture. Not only is that highly invasive, but it can also only be performed by a neurologist. Now, researchers at University College london are using Virtual Reality to help detect early signs of alzheimers disease, before it reaches the more severe stages of dementia. We know that in individuals with dementia diseases, theres two components. Theres the biological component, which might be detected by a blood test, but theres also the cognitive the thinking and the memory and the navigation component. And thats the problem that were trying to solve, is how do we complement new biological tests with really good cognitive tests that can detect it many years before dementia starts . If you look at the neuroscience of how the disease starts in the brain, it starts in the region that we think is responsible for our ability to navigate. Theres also an incredible experience where you get completely immersed in a new environment, and the way weve designed it is a really beautiful open field where you can see mountains, you can see pine trees. So were trying to make it as much of a relaxing process as possible. Its time to go into the virtual world, and then im going to be navigating my way around. Yes, exactly. From a starting point, the user has to follow the cones, and then information from the virtual landscape is removed and they need to find their way back to where they started from. And this is the controller, i and you will only have to use the trigger button, which is the one. That one . Yeah. Basically, you are immersed in this virtual environment. Theres the one. Im just going to walk towards the cliff. And as soon as you reach, you stop. I need to remember this spot to come back to later. Ill now go to two. And three. Oh, im somewhere else. Whats happening now . So basically, this time we kept all the ground information, as you can notice. Yeah. But we removed completely all the distant landmarks. Ok, so this is easierfor distance, but harder for direction. Exactly, thats great. Yeah, you got it. I think it was over here. The tricky bit� s trying to get back to cone one. Oh, im quite close yeah, well. Well, relatively close. Maybe im not that close at all. Im in the right field, i think might be as close as i am. Well, i dont know how i did, but it seemed rather challenging. And ive done a lot of vr before, so im used to Walking Around in one of these headsets. I wonder how it would be for someone doing it for the first time for this purpose. Maybe itd be thoroughly immersive, so it would do the job well, or maybe it would be a bit distracting and make them feel a bit nervous. I dont know. The test doesnt discriminate based on language or culture. Navigation is something that we all do. We think that this is therefore a test that works across different cultures, regardless of education, language, demographics. But we havent tested those diverse populations who historically have always been slightly disenfranchised by standard testing and say, well, actually, we can do it, we can apply this one and identify in you too. Weve seen a Turning Point in alzheimers detection recently. Researchers have developed a blood test that could uncover the disease long before symptoms emerge. And a new fda approved drug may see the progression of the disease slowed down. This means that one day it could become manageable for longer. Im in a field surrounded by cliffs. These are the first major breakthroughs that the Scientific Community has seen in the past 20 years. And although they are in their early stages, it gives us hope that one day the impact of dementia may be lessened. The Royal Institution is famed for its role in science education. It hosts Science Shows and workshops, and it creates resources for schools. And thatjob� s become more important than ever in a world where telling fact from fiction is becoming increasingly difficult. And Jacqui Wakefield has been investigating how children are being targeted online with fake science. Under 18s are the biggest audience on youtube. My favourite youtuber is a gamer called dantdm. I like, like, animalvideos. Mr beast. And parents and schools now rely on it as a tool to access great science content. But theres a new type of Content Creator using Artificial Intelligence to create videos full of false information. Imagine being told that the world you live in is not real. Creators are tagging these videos as educational content, and theyre often beating legitimate science videos in the race to be recommended. These videos do well because they are potentially in some way maybe conspiratorial. You know, were all fascinated by things that run counter to what were officially told, and children obviously maybe are more susceptible, perhaps, to this than adults. We wanted to see if these videos were reaching children. So we created an experiment. We set up four childrens accounts on youtube. Each account watched 50 science videos from legitimate creators. After only four days, one of the bad science channels cropped up in the recommended videos. Once we clicked these videos, they flooded our recommended feed. But would kids in the real world believe what they were seeing . With the right amount of pressure, the Great Pyramid could generate. A tremendous amount of electricity. I find it really interesting that pyramids can make electricity. Pyramid power plantsl were and are possible. I was quite surprised to find out. Just a pile of rocks can form electricity. I didnt know that people so long ago would be able to make electricity and use l modern technology. The person who was talking sounded very professional and knew what he was talking about. We found more than 50 channels creating these bad science videos, and they are getting hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of views. But how are they multiplying so fast . We found out that these channels are being created using Artificial Intelligence. A video needs a script, and with al, it can be generated in seconds. Then it needs a voice. Ai vmcsovsk it no longer needs to be human. Its not quite there yet, but eventually we wont be able to tell the difference. Then, ai can find footage from across the internet, taking from different sources, and piece together the final film. And theyre full of false information like this. Weather patterns have seen some remarkable changes in the past decades, but these changes might not be caused by Climate Change at all. Here they took old footage from a nasa experts video. They took out his voice and replaced it with al narration saying Climate Change isnt caused by humans, which isnt in the original. Kyle hill, a science communication specialist, educator and youtuber, began to notice these Videos Cropping up in his feed a couple of months ago. So being a youtube creator, i always try to have my ear to the ground for what other science and Technology Related channels are doing. But it wasnt until one of my viewers actually pointed out that it looked like a lot of the channels they were getting recommended after watching my videos started looking very the same. These channels seem to have identified the exact right thing and how to do that thing to maximise views with the least amount of actual effort. With new ai tools, anyone can create channels in a matter of hours, and there are hundreds of tutorials on youtube. With each video getting Tens Of Thousands of views, these channels can mean massive payouts for creators, and creators arent the only ones profiting. Youtube takes nearly half of Advertising Revenue from every video. Youtube told us that they recommend youtube kids for under 13s, which has a higher barfor videos shown. They said theyre committed to removing misinformation from their platforms. They also directed us to Information Panels that show additional context on conspiracy related content. We found this was only present for a few of the videos across the 50 channels. They didnt comment on Advertising Revenue they may receive from these videos. We reached out to some of the channels for comment. One responded saying their videos were intended for entertainment purposes and that they didnt target children. They also said the majority of their scripts were not written using ai. You know, i think the idea that youtube and google making money off the back of adverts being served against pseudoscience, ai generated news, thats really that seems really unethical to me. Off screen that video was actually all fake. Im actually. Really confused. I thought that was 100 real. I wouldve probably believed it i if you hadnt told us it was fake. I mean, i think i did believe it until a few minutes ago. Im just shocked. I think this is an emerging threat. I think that we dont have a really clear understanding yet of how ai land ai generated content is reallyl impacting childrens understanding. Good information is probably going to be pushed out. We will have so much ai generated content that you will not want to spend the time or the effort ever sifting through it. But some of the kids were able to spot that there was something not quite right about the videos. Maybe because of the, like, voice, like the choice of. Voice they had. Yeah, they used, like, an ai voice. I thought was fake because, like, you could tell, like, that it was not edited properly. Ai is evolving fast. As these videos continue to multiply, bad science could drown out good content. Apple has unveiled iphone 15 with a usb c charging port, hoped to reduce e waste. A legal showdown between google and the Us Government this week. The Department Ofjustice believes the tech company illegally maintained its Search Engine dominance. Google denies any wrongdoing and says the Search Landscape remains competitive. Its market share in search is north of 90 whichever way you look at it. The allegation was that it does so it reached that share and preserves it all the time through conduct that essentially chokes off any form of competition. The Orkney Islands is to trial Two Electric Ferries after receiving Government Funding for zero emission vehicles. The hydrofoils which lift the boats hull across the water as it gains speed are being supplied by belfast based Artemis Technologies for a three year trial. And a smart Airway Clearance device has been given a james dysoned award. Plural gives people with respiratory conditions a way to clear their chests at home to prevent complications of Mucus Build Up in lungs. Google turns 25 this month, and finds itself in a Tech Landscape thats changed dramatically since it was created in 1998. Alasdair keane has been chatting to the companys Chief Sustainability Officer, kate brandt, about how the company can adapt to an ai future. Ive been with google now for eight years as our Chief Sustainability Officer and during that time i think weve seen urgency around Climate Action only increase. And the way that weve come to think about our work is that we have a really unique opportunity to help advance action, and thats really in two ways. The first is by making information available, and the second is by moving innovation forward. And so we think about that kind of across three dimensions. The first is giving individuals helpful information that they can use in their daily lives to live more sustainably. The second is how we can support our partners and customers through Climate Information and data, both for Climate Mitigation and an adaptation. And then, of course, it starts at home with our own commitment to sustainability and how we operate our business. But whenever Big Companies like google talk about sustainability, people are always quick to talk about greenwashing, that this is just kind of paying lip service to sustainability. How do you make sure it isnt . We have been very deep and sincere in our work in this space from the very beginning, and part of that is transparency. We report on our work annually. We share our progress through white papers, and we want to keep partnering no one company can solve for this alone. Over the past six months or so, there has been a real interest and awareness raised about Artificial Intelligence, the technology that means computers can do what at one time only humans could do. Do you think ai will save us from the Climate Crisis . I think there are huge opportunities for al to address the Climate Crisis and alas a broader suite of technology as well. And were particularly seeing applications of ai in both enabling individuals so i talked about Eco Friendly Routeing In google maps, thats made possible through the power of ai providing all the computation in the background to give you that most eco friendly route. So were already seeing big applications and i think weve only just scratched the surface. There is also, though, a lot of scepticism about al. People tell us they are scared of it. Do you think there is more of a positive message to be shared . Yeah. I mean, the way that we think about it is al has to be approached both boldly and responsibly. And so, i think its very important to look at al like any new technology it can have risks and negative applications. We need to be thoughtful about that, but also it has such an advantage to enable people, to enable organisations to move forward. And i think especially in climate, were seeing these really powerful applications, and notjust around Climate Mitigation, but also around climate adaptation. As we all know, were already seeing the impacts of climate in our daily lives. You are surrounded by data and information about the Climate Crisis all the time and people talk about climate anxiety. Is that something that you face . I, you know, i read the science like from johan rockstrom, you know, in my daily work life. And it is really overwhelming. Its scary. I also have a two year old at home. And when you look at what these predictions about what the planets going to look like in 2021, thats her lifetime. So i find it scary and overwhelming. But i also feel very lucky that i get to get up every day and work on it, and im excited to empower everyone, whether its individuals, businesses, policymakers, with helpful information that they can use to be a part of the solution, because i think thats what helps us overcome that anxiety is taking action. Wow. 25 years old. Google is half my age. Wow. You dont look a day older than google. Thank you. Move on. Now, diamonds have often been marketed as a girls best friend but their extraction from the ground can really damage our relationship with the environment. Extracting a single one carat diamond can mean the removal of hundreds of tonnes of earth. And that process consumes vast amounts of fresh water and fossilfuels. And it has other side effects, which include deforestation and river pollution. But what if there was a more sustainable, maybe even a cheaper option . Well, priti gupta has been to a lab in india to find out more. Known as diamond city, surat has long been celebrated as the diamond polishing capital of india. The busy streets here are full of sellers peddling these precious gems. But i heard about one company thats looking to innovate by no longer extracting diamonds from the earth but, rather, growing them in a lab. Greenlab started as a Company Importing Diamonds