Predictive analytics in marketing, as I mentioned in my last post, is here. Already, this all-encompassing disruption in the fundamentals of marketing and sales is changing how marketing specialists and bloggers are talking about their industry. Machines can predict what you want, when you will want it. Pretty intense stuff, right?! Suddenly the larger than life 3D pink hologram woman from Blade Runner 2049 that bends down to talk specifically to you doesn't seem so far fetched, huh? If you've missed the movie, Blade Runner 2049, go see it, it's good, (although I'm still most partial to the 1982 original Blade Runner).

MIT CSAIL's origami robot is packaged in an ingestible ice pill. In 2013, University of Sheffield roboticist Dana Damian was doing postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School affiliate Boston Children's Hospital when she learned of a procedure called the Foker technique. The surgery, performed on children with a rare congenital lung defect, calls for doctors to attach sutures to part of an infant's esophagus, then tie them off on the baby's back. Over time, the sutures lengthen the esophagus by pulling on it, stimulating tissue growth. Although the technique can be effective, the risk of infection and complication is high, and the baby must remain under sedation for weeks.

The new film Sorry to Bother You has been widely praised by critics, but writer Evan Narcisse is frustrated that it's not getting the credit it deserves as a visionary work of science fiction. "The headline of my review on io9 was'Sorry to Bother You Is the Most Surreal, Important SciFi Movie in Years,'" Narcisse says in Episode 323 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "And I actually believe that. I believed it when I wrote it in March, I believe it now, and I believe it's going to be that way for years to come." Geek's Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley agrees that Sorry to Bother You derives much of its power from its wild science fiction imagery, a point that the film's director, Boots Riley, has made in interviews.

As movies become more CGI-focused, filmmakers have to be increasingly adept at "compositing" - the process of merging foreground and background images, like placing actors on top of planes, or planets, or into fictional worlds like Black Panther's Wakanda. Making these images look realistic isn't easy. Editors have to capture the subtle aesthetic transitions between foreground and background, which can be especially difficult for intricate materials like human hair that people are used to seeing look a certain way. "The tricky thing about these images is that not every pixel solely belongs to one object," says Yagiz Aksoy, a visiting researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). "In many cases it can be hard to determine which pixels are part of the background and which are part of a specific person." Getting these details right is tedious, time-consuming and difficult for anyone but the most seasoned of editors.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is infusing with MESH technologies to breathe new life into the already multi-billion dollar Internet of Things (IoT) market. IoT has been one of the more prominent buzzwords in technology over the past several years, but it has been taken to new heights through AI and MESH technology, allowing interconnected devices to operate at a higher rate of efficiency and thus open the door to more consumers and businesses to leverage IoT platforms in their everyday lives. According to GrowthEnabler and Market & Markets Analysis, the IoT industry will experience a CAGR of 28.5% through 2020 on its way to nearly $460 billion in revenues. The biggest factor influencing growth will be increased adoption as it becomes increasingly apparent just how much it can transform everyday tasks and overall lifestyles Active tech companies in the markets this week include Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTC:GOPH), Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV), International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM). Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTCQB:GOPH) BREAKING NEWS: Gopher Protocol, a company specializing in the creation of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence enabled mobile technologies, is pleased to announce that it has assembled its MESH system hardware and communication product specifications as part of phase 2; MESH implementation phase.

One particularly stressful part of using the pre-planned flight modes is that the craft might hit a tree branch of some other overhanging obstacle. In order to combat that, DJI added an infrared sensor to the top of the craft with a range of roughly 25 feet. This is a nice addition because, as many aspiring drone pilots will tell you, the ascent is often more stressful than the descent. Our full review later will report just how nimble this thing is on its own, but in my limited experience so far, it seems like an improvement over the Mavic Air's already-excellent system. Now that it's adept at sensing things that are behind it, the Mavic 2 Zoom also adds a new automated flight mode called Dolly Zoom, which involves zooming in while flying backward to create a unique effect like you see in the movies without worrying about smashing it into your garage, which may or may not be what happened with a previous drone during its review.

Facebook is due to start hiding posts from people who spam users' news feed with clickbait, sensationalised and misinformative articles. In a statement, the social media giant said it was making the update "to reduce low quality links" in users' news feed. Facebook said it carried out research which showed that a small group of users were "routinely sharing vast amounts of public posts per day", which was effectively spamming people's feeds. Hackers can use brainwave signals to steal passwords Government warned of'serious consequences' of extreme internet plans Woman asked to shoot her boyfriend for fame tweeted before video Jean-Claude Juncker admits he doesn't own a smartphone Government warned of'serious consequences' of extreme internet plans The study showed that the same people, who were sharing vast amounts of public posts, were also sharing low quality content. As a result of the research, Facebook said it would "deprioritise" posts being shared from those accounts.

In the first season of Crazy/Genius, The Atlantic's podcast on tech and culture, I asked experts to help me answer some of the hardest questions I could imagine. Would the U.S. economy be better off if the government broke up Amazon? Is smartphone use a behavioral addiction? And, seriously, where are all the aliens? In our upcoming season, the focus shifts from hard questions to radical answers, featuring a ragtag cast of scientists, tinkerers, and artists: a Harvard professor who's convinced that aging is just another curable disease; the chief engineer behind the world's most advanced self-driving car technology; climate scientists who study volcanic eruptions and see a lesson for slowing global warming; a startup couple developing the future of "meat" (it chirps); a concert pianist who plays duets with an algorithm, and whose work might be the future of creativity.

Along with Nikon's new camera, we also have hands-on impressions of some new drones, a supercar and Sony's new Aibo. Sony's robot dog is back, and the new model will arrive in the US later this year. Pre-orders open in September for the $2,899 First Litter Edition with accessories and three years of cloud services included. Devindra Hardawar saw a few of the AI-powered pups at an NYC event and found that "if you're an early adopter, or someone allergic to most animals, it might just fill the fur baby-sized hole in your heart." Yesterday drone behemoth DJI didn't just reveal the Mavic 2 Pro, it also introduced a second option in the line: the Mavic 2 Zoom.

The battle against propaganda bots is an arm's race for our democracy. It's one we may be about to lose. Bots--simple computer scripts--were originally designed to automate repetitive tasks like organizing content or conducting network maintenance, thus sparing humans hours of tedium. Companies and media outlets also use bots to operate social-media accounts, to instantly alert users of breaking news or promote newly published material. But they can also be used to operate large numbers of fake accounts, which makes them ideal for manipulating people.