A recent report on artificial intelligence (AI) by an Indian government think tank foresees the country as an AI hub for the developing world. Research analyst Shashank Reddy writes about the possibility of that happening. India is the latest country to join the race to lead the AI revolution, which is still in the making. The world's richest - and most powerful - countries have long been in this competition. It cuts across all spheres of national power, from the economy to the military, because the idea is that leadership in AI will enable global dominance. The two biggest powers so far have been the United States and China, with each investing heavily in AI and its applications.

The cancer-screening controversy resulting from the CervicalCheck debacle has devastated lives. It has also badly damaged the reputation of some health service organisations and their leadership. Over the last 10 years, some three million tests have been performed on 1.8 million women in Ireland. About 280,000 women per year now undergo the test. It transpires that all these Irish smear slides were manually individually examined.

The Russian president has become the latest person to warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI), actually predicting that whoever masters the technology first can rule the world. Addressing students last week, Vladimir Putin said that there are legitimate concerns about AI and that its development will produce "colossal opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict now." Going further, Putin warned that "the one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world." He added: "Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia but for all humankind," according to Russia Today. Putin added that he does not want to see the technology "monopolized," and added that Russia would share it with the world if Moscow develops advanced AI first.

It's hard to even picture the way travel used to be. It's hard to believe we all used to flip through reference books to decide our destination, that we used to walk down to the travel agent to book our flights, that we'd come home clutching a paper ticket with all our sectors locked in, that we'd call hotels to book, that we'd pack actual maps, that we'd write letters, that we'd carry rolls of film to later develop. It's changed immensely, and it's changed permanently. So much about the way we move through the world has been altered by modern technology, so much has been affected by advances that have often smoothed our path, making things easier, making them faster, making them cheaper. The AI of the future will help you find cheap flights, it will help you find the best seat on the plane, it will help you travel during the quietest periods.

China has 100,000 citizens' DNA records that can be accessed using their face in WeChat, the northern part of the country beats a green energy record, and Baidu's AI lab in Silicon Valley surpasses Harvard and MIT in tumor recognition accuracy. This Week In China Tech stays on top of the most important tech stories coming out of the second fastest growing economy in the world. This week, the Shenzhen Huada Forensic Science and Technology Company announced they are storing DNA from over 100,000 individuals from across China. The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huada Group which was established in 1999, is the world's leading genomics research and development institution. The new DNA database has lots of important applications like helping to identify lost or abandoned children, locating missing persons, identification after natural disasters and lifelong record creation (article in Chinese).

Google devices and apps have experienced serious outages that lasted for more than 12 hours and affected millions of users. The issue affected Google Home and Google Home Mini – speakers that respond to voice commands – as well as Chromecast – a device that plugs into a television and allows people to watch video content. Users were angry at both the length of the outage and the lack of information from Google about it, once it had been identified. Google has not given a reason why these devices went down, only apologising for the service problems and identifying a fix for the issues. The bug meant that when some Google Home owners asked a question of their speaker, it responded: "There was a glitch, try again in a few seconds." If they tried to reset the device, it would sometimes fail to reboot.

From autonomous cars to flying taxis to electric-powered aircraft, technological innovations in transportation vehicles seem to be moving faster than Elon Musk's express loop underneath Chicago. But when it comes to regular roads and traffic systems, we still seem to be stuck in the far right lane. The US has the worst traffic on the planet, with Los Angeles drivers leading the race to nowhere by spending an average of 102 hours per year in traffic jams. In 2014, the country spent $165 billion on highway construction, operation, and maintenance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That can buy a lot of asphalt and concrete, but what else?

BRUSSELS – Member nations of the global chemical weapons watchdog voted Wednesday to give the organization the authority to apportion blame for illegal attacks, expanding its powers following a bitter dispute pitting Britain and its Western allies against Russia and Syria. An 82-24 vote provided the two-thirds majority needed to enlarge the purview of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The organization was created to implement a 1997 treaty that banned chemical weapons, but lacked a mandate to name the parties it found responsible for using them. Many participating nations saw the inability to assign responsibility as a senseless hamstring, especially after fatal chemical attacks during the war in Syria. Russia opposed adding a new license to the agency's portfolio, saying that was a decision that belonged to the United Nations.

The young, educated, and tech-savvy population of Brazil stands out as the market having the greatest upside potential, with 59% of our respondents looking forward to buying a device. A general preference for voice interaction and lower levels of concern about online privacy leaves many Asian nations not far behind. In China, more than half (52%) plan to buy one. The story is similar in Vietnam (19% own, 45% plan to), Indonesia (18% own, 49% plan to), and Thailand (15% own, 44% plan to).

The AI era is already here, but many companies see the headlines and assume the rise of intelligent computing is something that only big corporations like Google and IBM are toying with. However, any business can make use of AI technologies thanks to cloud services, to help improve their operations, recruiting, security and even customer services. Is your business ready to take advantage of AI? Artificial intelligence (AI) is all over the news, from this week's article in Fortune as part of a special report. Among other areas, it focuses on how "China's two tech titans are battling for supremacy" to endless others espousing the technology's possibilities. Yet, as shown by recent layoffs at IBM Watson, Ai isn't simple to build.