Speculating what will cause our ultimate demise has been the stuff of science fiction for years--if it's not aliens wiping out the human race, it's probably robots. This is a proven trope that keeps moviegoers flocking to the likes of Independence Day, Ender's Game, The Terminator, or The Matrix. To deviate from the norm takes a little extra work, but one way directors can suggest a different route is with a short format proof-of-concept sales pitch. Created with nearly 40,000 in Kickstarter funding, "Rise" is a short film aspiring to feature length. Its central theme is to Terminator what District 9 was to Independence Day.

Automation is a growing phenomenon within many areas of scientific development especially within the area of research and development of new medicines. The pharmaceutical industry is constantly striving to create new drugs to combat and treat these diseases because of the research timescales and costs involved it's an increasingly difficult challenge and therefore improving the speed of the drug recovery process is of paramount importance. At The University of Manchester, a team of scientists has developed EVE, a scientist robot. EVE uses Artificial Intelligence to identify, sort and separate the compounds which can then help researchers narrow down new drug candidates faster. Artificial intelligence that robots like EVE possess ensures that the speed at which they can process formulae and combinations is much faster than the speed at which a human brain can function.

Actor and writer Wil Wheaton wants to "add an A to the STEM acronym and make it STEAM." He'll be speaking at the USA Science and Engineering Festival April 16-17 in Washington about why he thinks the arts should be represented in the acronym commonly used when referring to the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Wheaton, 43, best known for his role as Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in the 1980s and '90s and more recently as a fictionalized version of himself on "The Big Bang Theory," says that he has always been fascinated by science and technology, and has made it a goal of his to ensure that kids get the encouragement they need to pursue those fields. Wheaton spoke with U.S. News by phone about why he got involved in the festival, how science fiction and fact have shaped his life and career and why he thinks it should be "science, technology, engineering, arts and math." How did you get involved with the USA Science and Engineering Festival?

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your low-cost Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. The Super Mini Cheetah was developed at MIT as a "low-cost, easily replicable" quadruped robot platform. The MIT Super Mini Cheetah is an inexpensive and lightweight quadrupedal robot that is capable of behaviors such as running, walking, jumping and turning.

One of the first key takeaways from Vanderbilt Law School's conference on Thursday about artificial intelligence is that the term doesn't carry much value in the scientific community. "A.I. is whatever we can't do this year," David Lewis, a speaker who holds a PhD in computer science, said in between panel sessions. Lewis estimated we're currently experiencing the second or third wave of "A.I. hype," in which everyone uses the term to describe their technology. That's happened before, he said, and then it went out of style as a marketing buzzword. "By 2020, it'll have a negative connotation again," he predicted.

HPE takes machine learning efforts to the mainstream, giving developers easy, fast, and proven tools for building data-rich applications. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is proud to announce the immediate commercial availability of HPE Haven OnDemand, an innovative platform that provides advanced machine learning APIs and services that enable developers, startups, and enterprises to build data-rich mobile and enterprise applications. With over 60 APIs and services, HPE Haven OnDemand offers deep learning and analytics on a wide range of data, including text, audio, image, social, web, and video. For a full list of available machine learning APIs and service, please visit HPE Haven OnDemand. Colin Mahony, Senior Vice President and General Manager, HPE Big Data, shares, "HPE Haven OnDemand democratizes big data by bringing the power of machine learning, traditionally reserved for high-end, highly trained data scientists, to the mainstream developer community. Now anyone can leverage our easy to use cloud-based service to harness the rich variety of data available today to build applications that produce new insights, differentiate business, delight customers and deliver competitive advantage."

All these terms and more get thrown around when it comes to marketing to today's consumer, and for good reason. They're all used in an attempt to address the core problem faced by every brand competing for shoppers' increasingly divided attentions: building real, one-to-one relationships with customers -- at scale. Authentic, sustainable customer relationships are key to long-term business success. According to a recent survey by Oracle, 34 percent of shoppers reported "breaking up" with a brand because of "poor, disruptive or irrelevant marketing messages." Of them, over half (53 percent) attributed parting ways to irrelevant messages sent via multiple channels, and one-third (33 percent) said they did so because the messages were generic and obviously sent en masse.

AI experts believe that computers will write as well as humans within the next 15 years. This means that any student will be able to input a poorly-written essay into a software program, which will analyze the text and reconstruct it as well-written, grammatically correct text. Since we use calculators as an extension of our minds, shouldn't we also use AI software to become better writers? This is not a hypothetical question. Across the world, teams of computer scientists are racing at a breakneck speed to construct advanced artificial intelligence that can automate thinking and writing. Last month, AlphaGo, the artificial intelligence program created by Google, beat the world-champion Lee Sodel in Go, a game that is so complex that there are more choices available in a single game than there are atoms in the entire universe.

If you find a new dinosaur the next time you stick a shovel in the dirt, you'll be famous. But pity the paleobotanists -- they find new leaf fossils every time they dig. Lack of fame is the least of their problems, though. A central obstacle botanists face is the inability to identify all those fossils. Leaves are naturally complex, with an astounding variety of vein and shape patterns. Comprehensive knoweldge and identification are virtually impossible.