The US Department of Defense (DoD) apparently intends to seriously pursue the implementation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based pricing mechanism for minerals critical to the US’ green and military ambitions. Of what the US considers critical minerals, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth minerals like dysprosium and neodymium are confirmed to be included within the project’s remit. The project will be run by the DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) division and is to be called Open Price Exploration for National Security (OPEN), aiming to provide increased clarity into what can be incredibly opaque markets. DARPA claims directly that the purpose of this exercise is to increase clarity in these markets, rather than to provide alternate pricing mechanisms by which…