9 September 2026 · Andrew Grill in conversation with BBC Radio Bristol
Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas had just told the BBC that AI could help cure cancer within our lifetimes. BBC Radio Bristol brought in Andrew Grill, The Actionable Futurist®, to test the claim.
Five years ago, Andrew says, he’d have called it a long way off. Today he’s with Haas. Not a single cure for every cancer (it’s really 200 different diseases wearing one name) but a genuine compression of how long progress takes, because AI works at speed and scale in two specific ways:
Searching. Where a scientist tests one molecule at a time, AI runs speed dating for medicines: millions of possible matches swiped in an instant.
Spotting. A radiologist scanning image after image can miss something late in the day. AI doesn’t get bored. An NHS trial this year improved bad-scan detection by 25% across 100,000 women.
Asked about Haas’s other claim, that self-learning humanoid robots will soon clean homes and repair bridges, Andrew reached for his usual test: think about your own job, and the pile of things in it you don’t actually enjoy. That’s what AI slices away first, freeing you for the part only you can do. Humans aren’t becoming redundant. They’re being edited down to their best bits.
On the harder question, what happens to young people whose entry-level jobs are the ones AI does most efficiently, Andrew’s answer was practical rather than reassuring: learn to challenge AI’s answers rather than trust them, use it as a research tool rather than a final one, and get curious the way you would with a new phone or a new car. His prescription for anyone still on the sidelines: find the one person in your circle who’s cracked it, and buy them lunch.
“Find someone in your family group or friends group who seems to have mastered AI. Sit down with them for an hour and say, ‘Teach me what you know.'” — Andrew Grill
