Researchers have identified the brain region that controls hunting, and have found a way to switch it on and off. Ivan de Araujo at Yale University and his team have discovered that two sets of neurons in the mouse brain underpin the instinct to kill. One coordinates the pursuit of prey, while the other controls the neck and jaw muscles used for biting. Both are in the amygdala – the part of the brain involved in motivation, emotion and fear. By modifying these neurons so they could be activated by laser light, a technique called optogenetics, the team were able to switch these circuits on whenever they wanted.

One of the newer technologies getting buzz these days is the voice-enabled digital assistant – and new data from Accenture [pdf] suggests that it's not all hype. In fact, the use of embedded voice-enabled digital assistants in smartphones and PC/laptops has reached the mainstream among 14-17-year-olds, per Accenture's survey of almost 26,000 consumers across 26 countries. The results indicate that 31% of 14-17-year-olds regularly use voice-enabled digital assistants, with another 20% just getting started using them. Adoption – not surprisingly – declines with age, but still remains above one-third (38%) of Millennials (18-34) and higher than one-quarter (27%) of Gen Xers (35-54). Although only 15% of Boomers (55) are currently using voice-enabled digital assistants, another 35% are interested in doing so.

Google owner Alphabet's subsidiary research company, X, has shut down its project aimed at building a solar-powered drone intended to bring internet access to remote areas. The project, which stemmed from an acquisition Google made in April 2014 of New Mexico-based Titan Aerospace, was deemed by X to be less promising than a competing attempt to use lightweight weather balloons for the same purpose. "The team from Titan was brought into X in late-2015. We ended our exploration of high-altitude UAVs for internet access shortly after," an X spokesperson said. "By comparison, at this stage the economics and technical feasibility of Project Loon [its high-altitude balloon project] present a much more promising way to connect rural and remote parts of the world. Many people from the Titan team are now using their expertise as part of other high-flying projects at X, including Loon and Project Wing."

It's not always easy to know when you're under attack, or when your security has already been breached. If you're capable of detecting a breach, you might find it in as few as 10 days, but survey after survey finds that breaches that are detected by someone outside the business typically take over 100 days to find. For one thing, between ecommerce, company websites, email, mobile users and overseas divisions, your company is doing business 24/7; however, your IT security team probably works business hours. That's one way 60 percent of attackers are able to compromise an organization in minutes, according to Verizon's 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report. But only a third of businesses can detect a breach within a few days.

Google's secretive X R&D lab, a division of Google's parent company Alphabet, has pulled the plug on its drone project that would bring internet access to millions of people – Project Titan. It has been confirmed by Alphabet that engineers were told to look for other positions within the Alphabet/Google community. Although the project has been killed, the mission is still alive – the firm will continue to use Project Loon as a way to connect rural and remote areas of the world. X, a division of Google's parent company Alphabet, has pulled the plug on its project that would bring internet access to millions of people – Titan. The news was first reported by 9To5Mac, which received a statement from an X spokesperson.

Rising inequality and social polarisation are set to shape world developments for the next decade after contributing to Britain's decision to leave the European Union and the ballot-box success of US president-elect Donald Trump, the World Economic Forum says. Climate change was underlined as the third major global trend in the WEF's annual assessment of global risks, published on Wednesday at an event at Bloomberg's European headquarters in London. It said world leaders must work together to avoid "further hardship and volatility in the coming decade". If everything goes to plan, we should see Australian growth around 2.8% in 2017, but there are a number of risks in both directions. Bellamy's CEO Laura McBain has been widely credited for transforming the family-run local company to a global brand.

Rising income inequality and the polarisation of societies pose a risk to the global economy in 2017 and could result in the rolling back of globalisation unless urgent action is taken, according to the World Economic Forum. Before its annual meeting in Davos next week, the WEF said the gap between rich and poor had been behind the UK's Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election victory in the US. And it warned that there were new threats to social cohesion from the robotics and artificial intelligence revolution. The organisation said fundamental reform of capitalism may be needed to tackle public anger. The WEF's annual global risks report – culled from 700 experts – found that rising income and wealth disparity, and increasing polarisation of sectors of society, were ranked first and third among the underlying trends that will determine the shape of the world in the next decade.

ANZ, in Melbourne, Australia, was among the first banks to explore the possibilities -- it began using IBM's Watson to help its financial advisers understand their clients in 2013. The hedge fund Bridgewater Associates hired the former chief engineer behind IBM's Watson supercomputer in 2013 to create a unit that would use AI to predict market trends. BlackRock built its own artificial intelligence engine to assist its investment managers and clients. Goldman Sachs uses the AI-based financial research platform Kensho. UBS, Deutsche Bank and others are using an AI engine called Sqreem.

Artificial intelligence is moving from science fiction to practical reality fast. AI -- technology that teaches machines to learn so they can perform cognitive tasks and interact with people -- is suddenly accessible to many companies. Costs associated with the advanced computing and data-storage hardware behind AI are plummeting. A growing number of vendors also offer AI tools such as robotic processing automation that can be configured without the help of a rocket scientist. So this is clearly an area more banks will need to pay attention to going forward.

Over the next four weeks, BBC News will be offering a snapshot of the day in the life of a city - looking at how technology is transforming our urban landscapes, now and in the future. We will look at how technology is improving the morning commute, what it is doing to make our working day better, how it will transform our evening's entertainment and what goes on at night in the smart cities that increasingly never sleep. We start as urban dwellers around the world begin the day - with the morning commute. In the future, that may mean hailing a jetpack. "Jetpacks will be part of future cities," Peter Coker, vice-president of innovation at KuangChi Science, Martin Aircraft Company's major Chinese shareholder.