Google is one of the few companies that produces what the industry calls the full stack in computing, and it has a data goldmine for constructing AI models from its search index, Android phones and YouTube. Since the launch of ChatGPT three years ago, analysts and technologists -- even a Google engineer and the company's former chief executive -- have declared Google behind in the high-stakes race to develop artificial intelligence. The internet giant has released new AI software and struck deals, such as a chip tie-up with Anthropic PBC, that have reassured investors the company won't easily lose to ChatGPT creator OpenAI and other rivals. Google's newest multipurpose model, Gemini 3, won immediate praise for its capabilities in reasoning and coding, as well as niche tasks that have tripped up AI chatbots. Google's cloud business, once an also-ran, is growing steadily, thanks in part to the global rush to develop AI services and demand for compute.

As Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, addressed his shareholders during a much-anticipated yearly address last Thursday, he also unveiled "JioBrain," a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and applications that he says will transform a spate of businesses in energy, textiles, telecommunications and more that form his multinational conglomerate, Reliance Industries. "By perfecting JioBrain within Reliance, we will create a powerful AI service platform that we can offer to other enterprises as well," Ambani said during his speech. The Reliance Chairman's latest offering comes as India emerges as a crucial player in the global AI ecosystem, boasting a high-powered IT industry worth 250 billion, which serves many of the world's banks, manufacturers and firms. As the world's most populous country, India also has a robust workforce population with nearly 5 million programmers at a time when AI talent is in short supply globally, with analysts predicting that India's AI services could be worth 17 billion by 2027, according to a recent report by Nasscom and BCG. Puneet Chandok, the President of Microsoft India & South Asia, points to research that finds India has one of the highest AI adoption rates among knowledge workers, with 92% using generative AI at work--significantly higher than the global average of 75%.

The world's largest companies cannot be given free rein in their competition to capitalise artificial intelligence. What is the best way to develop artificial intelligence? This question, long theoretical, is quickly becoming a hands-on concern, which will soon demand that important strategic choices be made. We are seeing two completely different approaches play out before our eyes. One is the race among global technology giants which began with the recent launch of the Microsoft-funded ChatGPT, already provoking promises of similar systems from Google and the Chinese company Baidu.

Countries such as China, the US, South Korea, and Russia are investing huge sums of money to develop their AI technologies. On the other hand, India is also picking up its pace and entering the race of AI. Artificial Intelligence is indeed the next big thing that would dominate the world. Even the top IT companies have now declared that AI is the future. Countries such as China, the US, South Korea, and Russia are investing huge sums of money to develop their AI technologies and other policy strategies related to the same. On the other hand, India is also picking up its pace and entering the race of AI.

We're into our second year of publishing a "Global AI Race" series of articles on artificial intelligence startups from around the world and it continues to pose a challenge. We use an objective measure of "total funding taken in so far" and that excludes any firms that choose not to disclose funding or are bootstrapped. We search for various categorizations like "artificial intelligence" or "deep learning" and that means we'll miss any firms that haven't chosen those categories in their Crunchbase profile. But the ones we worry about the most are those firms that we might include in one of our "top AI startups" lists that don't actually do AI. It's a huge problem, and one that was highlighted recently by a European venture capital firm, MMC Ventures, that surveyed 2,830 startups in Europe that were classified as being AI companies and found out that 44% of these companies were incorrectly classified as being "AI startups."

President Donald Trump released a splashy new plan for American artificial intelligence last week. High on enthusiasm, low on details, its goal is to ramp up the rate of progress in AI research so the United States won't get outpaced by countries like China. Experts had been warning for months that under Trump, the US hasn't been doing enough to maintain its competitive edge. Now, it seems, Trump has finally got the memo. His executive order, signed February 11, promises to "drive technological breakthroughs ... in order to promote scientific discovery, economic competitiveness, and national security."

The growth of AI is much more than a technological advancement. AI will shape the future of the entire world. The impact of AI will be so huge that governments and companies who dominate AI will define the way our world will operate in the future. The economic impact of AI is estimated to be $15 trillion over the next 10 years, and a dramatic shift is currently underway that will determine which countries will have the advantage. Some countries have made AI a core element of their economic and geopolitical agenda.

The country that wins the global race for dominance in artificial intelligence stands to capture enormous economic benefits, including potentially doubling its economic growth rates by 2035. Unfortunately, the United States is getting bad advice about how to compete. Over the past year, Canada, China, France, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom have all launched major government-backed initiatives to compete in AI. While the Trump administration has begun to focus on how to advance the technology, it has not developed a cohesive national strategy to match that of other countries. This has allowed the conversation about how policymakers in the United States should support AI to be dominated by proposals from advocates primarily concerned with staving off potential harms of AI by imposing restrictive regulations on the technology, rather than supporting its growth.

Europe's secret weapon in the race against the U.S. and China on artificial intelligence is … ethics. That was the message at the core of the EU's AI strategy unveiled Wednesday and developed by a team of European Commissioners under the supervision of Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip. In its "Charter on AI Ethics," the Commission wants to spell out how to preserve fundamental rights along with the rise of AI. This, the bloc believes, will boost consumer trust in European AI applications and help the Continent -- which lags far behind the U.S. and China in building a state-of-the-art AI industry -- catch up with competitors. The strategy includes a boost to the bloc's annual spending on AI research and development of about 70 percent, to around €500 million, effective immediately.