Your World Tonight - AI in the ER, portable MRIs game changer, YouTube AI dangerous to toddlers, and more

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Being told you need an MRI scan has long meant long waits, sometimes long journeys to get one. But, cheaper portable versions are now showing up in more remote parts of Canada and are being shared and used in new ways that deal with the old problems.Also: Emergency room doctors are testing out AI doctors — powerful diagnostic AI models that can quickly assess the sick and injured in a crisis. The tech can read symptoms and suggest treatment. So far it’s scoring well compared to human physicians.And: There’s a flood of cheaply made videos on YouTube churned out by AI and aimed at toddlers. But closer looks find many spew nonsense and show things it would be dangerous for kids to try.Plus: Renewable energy is now plentiful enough to offset fossil fuels trapped in the Gulf, a fitness fad that combines dance floors and saunas, “prediction markets” spread claiming they’re not just online betting, and more.

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What makes you say that? This. Until May 31st, get up to $125 on a prepaid card when you buy four eligible Yokohama tires. Details at point S.ca.ca. Good point. Point S, tires, and auto service. This is a CBC podcast. The technology is incredible. It continues to get better and better, and I anticipate than it will.

The technology in question is behind a new generation of MRI and CT scanners, machines that are vital for helping doctors treat the sick and injured. But as Canadian patients know, the wait times for those machines can be long, although that is also a situation that might be getting better. The idea is to sort of flip the paradigm instead of the patient coming to the scanner, the scan. coming to the patient. Mobile scanners are hitting the road with the promise of easing the bottleneck in our healthcare system. Welcome to a holiday edition of Your World Tonight,

featuring some of our recent stories. I'm Stephanie Scandaris. It's not just the machines that are transforming healthcare. AI is not going to be a replacement. It might be another tool for us, a great tool for us. Artificial intelligence is being tested in hospitals to help emergency doctors, and pilot projects show the,

AI can quickly and accurately diagnose and suggest treatment. But there's still debate about how much AI should be allowed in the ER. I think if we're looking at AI clear-eyed and straight in the face, we should feel both scared and excited. We'll look at other ways that technology and AI are changing the way Canadians live, including concerns about AI generated videos on YouTube, aimed at toddlers. If you've ever been sent for a an MRI. You know the wait times can be long. It might even involve a trip to get to the closest machine, usually in a big city. But things might be getting better, or at least closer. Mobile MRI machines can be cheaper, the cost shared among a number of communities, and they come to the patient.

Lauren Pelley has more. That was over the moon in terms of knowing that they were able to use this technology. Dave Evans had surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland last fall. Later, he learned his surgical team in London, Ontario, did something novel. They used a mobile MRI machine to scan his brain midway through the procedure to make sure they got as much of the growth as possible. It's reassuring to know that you can do this. Dr. Neil Dugel is a neurosurgeon at London Health Sciences Center. Since operating on Evans in October, he's since used his hospital's new portable MRI during five more pituitary surgeries. These are complex and risky operations, since this tiny gland is flanked by arteries and nerves that lead to the eyes and brain.

If we injure those arteries, that can lead to catastrophic hemorrhage, stroke or death. Usually surgeons remove as much tumor as safely possible, then wait for a traditional follow-up MRI to see what's left. And that's really where having the instant feedback is what I think a game changes. More Canadian health care teams are now using portable MRIs and CT scanners. There are at least 16 mobile devices operating across the country, and some are shared by multiple communities. The technology is incredible. It continues to get better and better, and I anticipate than it will. Yale University researcher Dr. Kevin Scheth studies these mobile machines. Unlike traditional scanners that are large, more expensive, and stay in one place, Scheth says portable options can reach patients in

remote and rural areas that don't have access to other types of brain scans. His own research showed mobile MRIs are nearly as effective as standard MRIs in detecting strokes. The idea is to sort of flip the paradigm instead of the patient coming to the scanner, the scanner coming to the patient. That's the case in Edmonton. The country's first mobile stroke ambulance has spent the last decade diagnosing strokes with a portable CT scanner right on the roadside.

I think it's also really important that the limitations of these devices are clearly communicated. University of Minnesota researcher Francis Shen warns the image quality still isn't as high as stationary units. And there are real differences between some of the lower field scanners that will be highly portable. Even so, clinicians say there's huge potential for these innovative devices in the not so distant future. Lauren Pelley, CBC News, Toronto. More doctors are using AI. to help them treat patients. Often they use it to quickly transcribe conversations,

but much more sophisticated software is now being tested in emergency wards. In pilot projects, frontline doctors are consulting AI bots to get a second opinion on how to treat patients in crisis. And as Christine Birak reports, the results look promising. So tell me what happened here. A man comes in after a fall to Oak Valley Hospital in Markham, Ontario. Something is off with his heart.

Standing at the nurses station, ER doctor Nur Katib goes over his chart. With a waiting room full of patients, the clock is ticking to find the cause. You're going to cardiovert him now? Okay, let's go. In the ER, everything's higher stakes. Cases can be complex and decisions come fast. Researchers wanted to know if artificial intelligence could reason like an ER doc and come up with a proper diagnosis.

Now, newly published American research in the journal Science suggests, yes, it can. Using the newest AI model, five observational test studies found that AI outperformed physician baselines. On complicated cases, it was correct roughly eight out of ten times. It doesn't mean that computers can do medicine. Adam Rodman is one of the lead authors of the study. He's a doctor and AI researcher in Boston. It means that within this narrow task, it can solve diagnoses better than humans, which is exciting,

but is only the beginning of the conversation. AI is not going to be a replacement. It might be another tool for us. a great tool for us. Back at Oak Valley, Dr. Khatim is part of a pilot project. So when the AI tool starts, I click on transcribe. Streamlining her patient notes. So then the patient's story, which is unique to the patient, is captured.

Basically, help me spend more time with the patient. Less time on the screen. Less time with the papers. The American Medical Association says more than 80% of U.S. doctors are now using AI in their work, including platforms like open evidence. But there are limits. The study evaluated the quality of the AI's reasoning in ERs. It did not look at safety or effectiveness.

The author stress it would make sense as a second opinion. But experts say there can be downsides. The gastroenterologists that got used to using AI actually started performing worse when they stopped using the AI. So there can be a dependence and there can be a skill erosion over time. Dr. N. Mole Verma is a professor of AI research and education in medicine at the University of Toronto. He says doctors still need experience to judge whether AI is offering sound advice. But he doesn't dispute its potential. I think if we're looking at AI clear-eyed and straight in the face,

we should feel both scared and excited. I'll ask you to take a deep breath. Dr. Katib sees the value. With the right guardrails, she hopes AI can safely be used as a tool in ERs to help quality care reach more people. Christine Birak, CBC News, Markham, Ontario. They're catchy, colorful, almost irresistible to small kids, and also potentially harmful. AI-generated videos aimed at toddlers and preschoolers are found all over YouTube.

But a growing number of child development experts are warning they're bad for kids. And they want the online giant to come up with better protection or take the videos down. Deanna Suminac Johnson has the story. Their brightly colored animated videos set to nursery rhymes showing worlds populated with plump babies, adorable animals, and technicolor cars and trains. But a closer look reveals bizarre details. The choo-tru train goes into a tunnel backwards. Its wagons, purporting to teach kids their ABCs, display nonsensical sequences of letters and numbers,

telltale signs that these videos were made by AI. Now what we're seeing with AI and AI Slop is that it's become so easy to make content. Carla Englebrecht knows a thing or two about educational entertainment for young children. She's created content for Netflix, Sesame Street, and PBS. But she says what your toddler or preschooler might be watching online now are different than typical animated YouTube shorts for kids they're made to resemble. So I've seen content where it is modeling behaviors you don't want a child to do. you know, grabbing a hot pan out of an oven with bare hands, really dangerous things. The group of more than 200 experts and educators signed a letter to CEOs of Google and YouTube,

alleging that so-called AI slop harms children's development by distorting their sense of reality and hijacking their attention. It's garbage, and young children cannot learn from garbage. Dr. Michelle Ponte is a pediatrician based in London, Ontario. She co-signed the letter. This AI-generated material is so fast-paced and it's nonsensical, so they can't transfer that over to real-life experiences. In an email to CBC News, a YouTube spokesperson said,

we have high standards for the content to YouTube kids, including limiting AI-generated content in the app, to a small set of high-quality channels. And added that they're working on developing labels for YouTube kids that would further limit AI slop. Calgary-based mom Sarah Rimbi Verklund would welcome both government policy and efforts by tech companies. It's so pervasive in their everyday lives and in schools and in friends' houses. And it's something that it's this avalanche.

An avalanche that's getting even faster, more impactful and possibly more damaging with a proliferation of AI content for children. Deanna Sumanai Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. Coming up on this holiday edition of Your World Tonight, a new new. form of bedding is taking hold and the backlash has been predictable. Also, a good news story, few could have predicted. There may be enough solar and wind power to make up for the fossil fuels now stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. Later in the program, we'll have this.

I'm Aina Sadiou in Calgary, where a wellness trend is heating up. Sona raves are becoming the ultimate night out, swapping loud clubs for heat, relaxation, and an early bedtime. They're done by 9.30. I'm tucked into bed by 10, and it's the perfect elder millennial experience. Why sanas are suddenly the hottest place to socialize. I'll have the story later on your world tonight. All wagers are based on some kind of prediction, often about sports. Who will win? Who will lose? But prediction markets will take odds on just about anything, including world events, like when a war might start. Promoters say it's a window into the future.

Critics say it's part of the explosion of online betting. Nora Young has more. Cali is available nationwide and lets you live trade against others on anything. Prediction markets don't call it gambling. They call it an exchange where people trade event contracts on whether a real-world event, pretty much anything, is going to happen or not. Not a bet, they say, but a financial product. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

Andrew Kim isn't convinced. He's a licensed psychologist and associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who specializes in addiction. Prediction markets has a lot of structural similarities to gambling that I would conceptualize this as another form of gambling activity, especially if you're betting on sports. And a flyboard in deep center field, he hits. A U.S. regulatory environment that's more favorable to prediction markets has made them more mainstream. But in that brighter spotlight, they're drawing scrutiny. U.S. lawmakers have proposed a host of new bills to rein in these markets, including banning contracts on sports, elections, government actions, and war. Someone just made half a million on Iran being bombed.

In the Mideast War, there have been suspicious event contracts related to the conflict, raising concerns about insider trading. Proposed legislation would also bar elected officials from participating. Kalshi and Polly Market have both responded. responded to the mounting pressure with crackdowns on insider trading. The idea of this prediction markets to aggregate information from many people by having people put their money where their mouses. Werner Antweiler is an academic who ran an experimental not-for-profit prediction market at UBC

for over 20 years. He says carefully controlled markets can be powerful tools that can help predict outcomes more accurately than, say, opinion polls. But he says because commercial markets don't cap investments, individual traders with deep pockets can have an outsized impact, leaving the door open for market manipulation. In Canada, the short-term yes-no contracts that prediction markets deal in are prohibited, but FinTech Company Wealth Simple recently became the second Canadian company

to get approval for a limited scope prediction market. Nora Young, CBC News, Toronto. From prediction markets to energy markets, the U.S.-led war on Iran has the world scrambling to deal with massive shortages of oil and gas. Much of it stopped by Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But there could be a sunny side to the story.

Two new reports calculate there is now enough renewable energy in the world to replace those fossil fuels and close the gap. Science reporter Anand Ram has been looking at that claim. Anand, the headline here seems to be mostly about the huge growth of solar power. Absolutely. The rise of solar is all over two recent reports, It's one from Ember.

They're an energy think tank in the UK and the other from the International Energy Agency. Both of them found that solar power grew in 2025 faster and higher than any other source of energy as a result of direct investment led by historical and current polluters like China and India. They're making gains in the production and deployment of solar energy so much that they did not increase their electricity usage from fossil fuels. And, you know, these reports are full of these very sunny stats. including that global solar output is now the same size as the total electricity demand of the EU. That's 27 member nations. And that solar helped boost all renewable forms of energy so that the world didn't need to look to fossil fuels to deal with the excess demand. Which is something that we're really thinking about right now because this conflict has really focused our minds on just how dependent the world is on fossil fuels, particularly from the Middle East.

So are we seeing new urgency around that question of transitioning away from them? Yes, we definitely are. And they're being so affected by this one geopolitical conflict. It is clearly a dependency. And that's how Jessica Isaacs puts it. She's an energy and policy expert with the World Resources Institute. You have something that you can't control that's playing a huge part in your economy. So the choice to transition to renewable electricity is a choice that can really insulate countries from those supply shocks.

So she points to several economies that have weathered those shocks by getting off of oil and natural gas. And normally we think about wealthier nations like Denmark or Norway that are entirely almost run on renewable energy. But you might not consider a nation like Pakistan whose use of solar power has exploded in recent years. Isaac's estimates solar has helped Pakistan avoid importing Iranian natural gas, saving the country about $12 billion U.S. So this investment in solar can be a sort of shield too. This transition, it's been a big topic of discussion for a really long time, comes up at the COP conference on climate change every single year. So what's been stalling it? You're right. We hear about these cop conferences.

And one of the most nefarious things at these conferences is square brackets. And when you have square brackets around these words, they're not fully agreed on. So transitioning away from fossil fuels and any sort of words or language around that has been subject to many a square bracket. and major oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia block it from staying in the final version. So if it's not all agreed on in the consensus-based process of the UN, it's removed. But the end of last month, a group of nearly 60 countries held a conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, to talk about transitioning away. No Saudi Arabia, no United States.

Canada was actually the largest oil and gas player there. And since the goal was not to replace the cop conferences, it was pretty liberating. From the people we spoke to on the ground, there was definitely this sense of progress. being made, ideas discussed among civil groups, indigenous voices, scientists, all with countries that were serious that this move away from fossil fuels needs to happen in a concrete, planned way. And they've already agreed to meet again next year in the Pacific Island Nation of Tuvalu. Anand, thank you so much. Thank you. CBC's Anand Rahm in Toronto. This spring has proven to be dangerous for gray whales

off the coast of BC. Their annual migration has seen an alarming spike in fatalities. Researchers believe the whales haven't found enough food to survive the long trip. Tanya Fletcher reports. Off the west coast of Vancouver Island, cruised how a lifeless gray whale to shore. Four of them have been found dead in BC waters in the span of 10 days. Of the four animals, two are severely emaciated.

They're basically a bag of bones. really sad to see that kind of body condition. Biologist Paul Cottrell with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans describes them as swimming zombies. And it's especially concerning for the female whales. When females are not healthy enough to have calves, that shows the population is in a bit of trouble. And that's what we're seeing for 2025.

I think the lowest calf production on record in recent history. The recent rise in gray whale deaths extends south into U.S. waters as well. It is heartbreaking. I used to say in recent years, you know, oh, these deaths are worrisome, but they're not yet alarming. Well, now they are alarming. John Kalambokides from the Cascadia Research Collective says climate change has limited their food supply in the Arctic. These whales typically fast when they migrate down to their breeding grounds in Mexico that they're on their way back from. And so this is the period that kind of is most stressful, if you will. If they didn't get enough of a reserve, that's when they're not making it. The health of gray whales has been on the decline for several years.

There's been a roughly 50% decrease in the population over the past decade. UBC marine mammal researcher Andrew Trites expects this year's trend to be on pace with one of the deadliest ever along the West Coast. There are going to be more deaths. I think there's no doubt about that. Starting as early as February, they begin to migrate north. And so they're in sort of a stage departure times. And now is the peak time to be passing by British Columbia. And as they keep going, we're going to see we still have all the May to get through.

So I do expect there'll be more deaths. Scientists are using drones to track specific whales over time to see how their body condition changes. But experts say more research is needed. It's hoped a cross-border collaboration will help them better understand and protect gray whales up and down the West Coast. Tanya Fletcher, CBC News, Vancouver. It's been a long winter for much of Canada. story might provide a warm-up. Close your eyes. Think of a sauna. Think of a dance floor. Now put the two together and let Einis Sedu tell you about one hot trend in wellness. The music is blasting with a live

DJ. There's dancing and drinks, only there's no alcohol. People are wearing bathing suits and it's 90 degrees Celsius. This is a sauna rave, where people cycle between intense heat, a cold, plunge and a lounge space transformed into a dance floor. I rave all the time, so I mean, just adding the sauna aspect to me was like, okay, yeah. It reminds me of when I was in my 20s, except I'm totally sober and enjoying myself, and I won't be hung over. Here at Primal in Calgary, these events are offering a different kind of night out. So I think the Wellness Meets Club really works for a lot of people. McKenella Brecht says the shift reflects a broader trend, as some Canadians drink less and look for new ways to connect.

Usually they're earlier in the evening, so they're not until 1 or 2 in the morning. Usually we try and do like at 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. for anyone that wants to go to bed at 10, like me. Hot and cold therapy has been around for centuries. Supporters say it can help ease sore muscles and boost energy. Traditionally, saunas are quiet. But pairing the ritual with music and community is what's drawing new crowds. As an outsider, it's like, okay, parties and sonnas like, what's going on here?

In Toronto, other ship co-founder Harry Taylor says business is growing and they've even expanded to New York. Taylor says they also host comedy nights and singles parties. Spice Girl Mel C was even brought in as a celebrity DJ in New York when othership partnered with Daybreaker, known around the world for its daytime parties. Taylor says people have found an alternative to socialize through these parties. There's something about the hot and cold that just makes us feel like, who, okay, I can be me. I can just let loose and have fun,

be myself in front of others, and connect authentically with others. Alan Jalishsa is an ambassador with sauna from Finland. He's based in Waterloo, but travels the world educating people on the authentic Finnish sauna experience. This is an extension of the craving for social sauna and predominantly among young people where they're looking for a healthy alternative

to the pubs that they would normally go to. And he's hoping more people can share this bit of Finnish culture as this trend goes global. Aina Sadiou, CBC News, Calgary. That's it for this special holiday edition of Your World Tonight for Monday, May 18th. Thank you for being with us. I'm Stephanie Scandaris. Good night.

For more CBC podcasts, go to cbcbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.