When we think of innovators of the technology space we largely think of blokes like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk – the zeitgeist is largely male. But that hasn't always been the case. As a matter of fact, for the first decade or so programming was a'pink-collar' industry. The vast majority of early coders were women. What's more, it's an industry created by women.

Oussama Khatib held his breath as he swam through the wreck of La Lune, 100 meters below the Mediterranean. The flagship of King Louis XIV sank here in 1664, 20 miles off the southern coast of France, and no human had touched the ruins – or the countless treasures and artifacts the ship once carried – in the centuries since. With guidance from a team of skilled deep-sea archaeologists who had studied the site, Khatib, a professor of computer science at Stanford, spotted a grapefruit-size vase. He hovered precisely over the vase, reached out, felt its contours and weight, and stuck a finger inside to get a good grip. He swam over to a recovery basket, gently laid down the vase and shut the lid.

PA's automation experts, Helena Moren and Simon Andersson, have had an article published in NyTeknik about the rise of smart machines and how Swedish companies are lagging behind that trend. The article outlines how robots and artificial intelligence will have a significant impact on business and finance, with the market for smart machines expected to be worth approximately SEK 130 billion by 2020. While predicting robots' impact on the labour market is more difficult, there is a high probability that the robots will bring new, high-end jobs and greater freedom for mankind. Helena and Simon explain that robotisation can release a comprehensive range of resources and can be used to increase efficiency and productivity. But, as revealed in a report presented at the Davos summit in January, Swedish companies are falling behind in this digitisation, mainly because they are not efficiently resourced to make these developments.

Steve Wozniak tells the innovation summit that artificial intelligence researchers are getting close to the point of understanding "what the brain is". The man who helped bring Apple computers to the world says we're on the verge of an artificial intelligence revolution. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told an innovation summit in Brisbane artificial intelligence would be the next big disrupter, separate from the digital revolution that changed the world with personal computers and smartphones. Speaking via video link from the US, "The Woz" described AI as "machines acting like human friends". An attendee at the Brisbane summit films Mr Wozniak's broadcast.

The tech world's spotlight turned to chatbots after Facebook announced the launch of their own bot store on the Messenger platform at the F8 conference in April 2016. A few weeks later, the news has been covered extensively. It has also generated a lot of criticism. The two main arguments against are that this is nothing substantially new and that chatbots give only approximative answers. These hasty criticisms are due to the fact that most people haven't quite grasped the real concept behind the Messenger bot store.

Lego's decision to reject Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's request for a bulk order of its bricks last year was a "mistake", the toy firm has admitted. Vice-Chairman Kirk Kristiansen told The Wall Street Journal an employee had misinterpreted the company's policy on political neutrality. In October, Ai said his request was declined because Lego considered his planned exhibition to be too political. The artist is known for criticism of the Chinese government. "It was an internal mistake," Mr Kirk Kristiansen said.

A couple have been told to restrain their cat or face having their mail deliveries suspended. Matthew Sampson was notified by Royal Mail last week of a "potential hazard" at his home in South Gloucestershire which was "affecting deliveries". According to Royal Mail, Bella the cat is a "threat" to staff and has been putting "fingers at risk of injury". But owner Matthew Sampson, said he was "shocked" by the notice as he has "never seen her get aggressive". In the letter, Royal Mail states it has been "experiencing difficulties in delivering mail" to Mr Sampson's address in Patchway "because of the actions of a cat". It said the couple's postman had reported that when he pushes mail through their letterbox their cat "snatches the mail and put his fingers at risk of injury".

Is this a new form of native advertising? Thursday 28 April 2016 05.10 EDT Last modified on Thursday 28 April 2016 05.15 EDT And you thought it was annoying when you leave your computer to make a cup of tea, returning to find Windows 10 installing. Microsoft's free Windows 10 "recommended" upgrade nag interrupted a weather person mid-flow as she was live describing the conditions around Des Moines, Iowa, on KCCI News. But interrupting the weather to tell us all is overkill.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are no longer story lines for science fiction. They are very much a part of our daily lives. Players like MadStreetDen, SnapShopr, and now Streamoid Technologies' piQit Fashion have brought AI into our everyday fashion shopping. Founded in 2013, Streamoid Technologies began operations in mid-2014 and is now present in India and the US. Their platform piQit Fashion uses a combination of human and machine intelligence to solve many problems commonly found in fashion retail.

Drive.ai is the 13th company to be granted a license to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California. This is exciting news, especially because we had no idea that Drive.ai even existed until just last week. The company has been in stealth mode for the past year, working on applying deep learning techniques to self-driving cars. We spoke with two of Drive.ai's Its core team is made up of experts with a wealth of experience developing deep learning systems in all kinds of different domains, including natural language processing, computer vision, and (most recently) autonomous driving. "This team helped pioneer how to scale deep learning, which is one of the reasons why deep learning has been successful as of late," says Tandon, the company's CEO.