This is the Guardian. In Norway, a woman's boyfriend forgets who she is overnight. In Detroit a man is arrested but he was never at the crime scene. In Spain

disturbing pictures of young girls have appeared and no one knows who's behind them.

Something strange is happening, a collision

between people and artificial intelligence. Discover more in the Guardian's new

series Black Box. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes, Monday and Thursdays. For the last few years, the Guardian's Health Editor Andrew Gregory has been hearing about

a worrying trend.

Sources I speak to in the oncology community have been concerned about this for some time.

Early onset cancers, those among the under 50s, seem to be on the rise. Papers digging into the issue backed up oncologist suspicions,

and then came a study in late 2023 that examined data from 204 countries.

When it really came to prominence was last year,

when a new study emerged in the BMJ on College Journal.

What it found was shocking.

Essentially the top findings were that the number of under-fifties globally being diagnosed with any form of cancer that increased by nearly 80% in the last three decades.

We've not seen that rate of increase ever before.

And while the global population has grown by 46% in that time, experts agree that the rate

of increase is concerning.

It's a trend that could lead to more of us losing loved ones earlier than we should.

And there's one type of cancer that stands out, bowel cancer.

By 2030, it's going to be the number one cancer in young adults.

Which is why a major new study has just launched across the UK, US and India

to try and work out what's going on and how we can stop it.

I think awareness among the public as well as the medical professionals is actually the first priority

...