• Dropping birth rates. It’s taken a couple of generations to notice, and a few countries (Japan and South Korea) have started to realize it’s impact and blast radius. Like a slow-burning fuse that nobody is willing to tamp out.

• Mistrust of information and news and how it erodes trust in… well, everything.

• Eldercare – what will happens to ALL of us.

• Water wars. The single most important element necessary for animal, plant, and human life.

I don’t think you’ll be able to keep AI out of those predictions. It’ll likely morph into something actually useful, and seep deeper into all kinds of technologies. Sort of like how so many cars now come with ‘Driver Assist.’

But I think a lot of it will migrate to run on devices, so your 3D printer or air-conditioner will be more adaptive and less prone to failing.

Also, given what Apple and Google recently showed at their dev conferences, we’re going to see a lot more use of AI inside games, like NPCs that say and behave in different ways. Or productivity apps that look at what you’re doing and berate you for being too stupid.

Apple just demoed exactly that, running fully on-device:

https://youtu.be/6Wgg7DIY29E

Irish Coffee and Mission Burritos.

Look up local “Hazardous Waste” and “E-waste” disposal. Some electronics repair shops will take them too.

Batteries shouldn’t go into garbage because they can and will leak or explode. We have a regular recycling service around here, but they don’t take many kinds of batteries (including lithium ones).

There’s a county “hazardous waste” service that takes things like paint and old fuel for generators. They take some things but not others. There’s also a separate “e-waste” service. Last time I had a few things to drop off, I had to call to find which ones would take a specific type of battery.

I’ve got the same Anker recall. Will be calling around next week to find which place will take them.