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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

How AI could design our diets

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The Food Chain: How AI could design our diets

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20/04/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, How AI could design our diets

Are machines better at deciding what we should eat, than we are?

Every day, humans make multiple choices about what to eat. Some of those decisions will be better for our health than others - but what if we allowed a machine to decide for us? 

In this programme, Adam Shaw explores what would happen if we let artificial intelligence (AI) design our diets and whether that might improve our health. 

Adam visits a laboratory in the UK to meet AI researcher Dr James Neil, from the Centre for Nutrition Education & Lifestyle Management, whose company is developing machine-learning systems to create personalised diets.  

He speaks to dietician Pennie McCoy, to find out how a digital therapist called ‘Hope’ is learning to help Australians stay on track with their weight-loss goals. 

Dr Mariette Abrahams, dietician and CEO of Qina, a company in Portugal which offers strategic advice on the personalised nutritional market, tells Adam about the potential and the pitfalls of the new tools. 

And Dr Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine and executive vice president of Scripps Research in the US, considers whether AI-driven diets will be used for a small group of people, or whether the technology could fundamentally change everyone’s approach to food. 

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk 

(Picture: A robot hand and a human hand both reaching out to grab an apple. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Presenter: Adam Shaw 
Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

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