Indium, rhodium, platinum, tellurium and gold: these are some of the rarest elements in the world. From smartphones (which contain a whopping 60 to 64 elements) to hybrid cars, wind turbines and medical equipment, much of the technology we depend upon contains a rich list of elemental ingredients. Meanwhile, demand for traditional metals such as copper and aluminium is rocketing, driven by the rapid growth of emerging economies in Asia and South America. If our voracious appetite for these minerals continues at the current rate then rare earth metals may be mined out in 15 to 20 years, and indium may only have another decade of supplies remaining. Even aluminium could run dry within the next century.

AI Assistants: in the news: what have you missed?

The "Predictive Data Science in R" hands-on ACM class is on Saturday, Sep 16 at Intel in Santa Clara, CA. The class lectures include best practices of setting up a data mining project and preprocessing, going through a first sprint in R, using RStudio and packages like data.table, Greg Makowski has been deploying predictive data mining models since 1992. We are a 501c(3) non-profit, run by unpaid volunteers, running this as a fundraiser.

The other day I was reading an article on how AI has progressed so far and where it is going. I was awestruck and had a hard time digesting the picture the author drew on possibilities in the future. Here is how I reacted. "A surgeon could control a machine scalpel with her motor cortex instead of holding one in her hand, and she could receive sensory input from that scalpel so that it would feel like an 11th finger to her. So it would be as if one of her fingers was a scalpel and she could do the surgery without holding any tools, giving her much finer control over her incisions. An inexperienced surgeon performing a tough operation could bring a couple of her mentors into the scene as she operates to watch her work through her eyes and think instructions or advice to her. And if something goes really wrong, one of them could "take the wheel" and connect their motor cortex to her outputs to take control of her hands."

Much has been made of the "food boom" in Pittsburgh, and the city has long had a thriving arts scene. But perhaps the secret, underlying driver for both the economy and the cool factor -- the reason Pittsburgh now gets mentioned alongside Brooklyn and Portland, Ore., as an urban hot spot for millennials -- isn't chefs or artists but geeks. In a 2014 article in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mayor Bill Peduto compared Carnegie Mellon, along with the University of Pittsburgh, to the iron ore factories that made this city an industrial power in the 19th century. The schools are the local resource "churning out that talent" from which the city is fueled. Because of the top students and research professors at Carnegie Mellon, tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Uber have opened offices here.

Researchers have developed the world's first autonomous, zero-emissions cargo ship. The vessel could dramatically reduce diesel emissions from conventional cargo ships. The vessel, developed by agriculture company Yara International ASA and high-technology systems firm Kongsberg Gruppen, will be loaded and unloaded automatically using electric cranes. Researchers have developed the world's first autonomous, zero-emissions cargo ship: The Yara Birkeland. Developed by agriculture company Yara International ASA and high-technology systems firm Kongsberg Gruppen, will be capable of autonomous mooring and route planning.

South Korea's LG Chem is slated to exclusively provide batteries for Apple's iPhone 9 which is likely to be launched next year, a Korean newspaper reported on Friday. LG Chem has invested hundreds of billions of won in a dedicated line for the purpose and will produce'L-shaped' batteries for next year's iPhone, the Korea Economic Daily reported citing an unnamed chemical industry source. A spokesman for LG Chem said it does not respond to inquiries about client companies. Apple could not be immediately reached for comment. LG Chem has invested hundreds of billions of won in a dedicated line for the Apple project, and will produce'L-shaped' batteries for next year's iPhone, the Korea Economic Daily claims.

We are living in the Age of Plastic. In 2015, the world's industries created 448 million tons of it -- twice as much as it did in 1998. However, our recycling efforts have not matched pace. In fact, according to the EPA, barely 14 percent of plastic products are recycled globally. But a new generation of recycling technology is here to keep the world's plastics in circulation and out of our landfills.

The MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT) is one of the most internationally-renowned academic ecosystems in terms of research, technology and the future. With these credentials, it is not strange that OpenMind has selected it as the perfect setting to ponder: What's the next step? Exponential life, a life marked by the progress of so-called exponential technologies is not science fiction, nor a possible exclusively future scenario because technologies are already among us that transform our lives in very different ways. In this article we have chosen 5 examples, explained by the authors of our latest book, to show why we can say that exponential technologies are already here. Image of the event held at MIT.

Automation has its perks but more or less, people are more concerned about the potential threats and malicious use cases that may lead to disastrous results. Over the years, the influence of machines has increased in our day to day lives. Artificial Intelligence has been the catalyst that pushed it further and now it has gone on to the next level. For instance, now robotic arms are being used for carrying out complex surgical operations. While these machines perform tasks with extreme accuracy, there's always a risk involved that if certain thing goes wrong, it may lead to a catastrophe.