The Download: Early adopters cash in on China's OpenClaw craze, and US batteries slump Hustlers are cashing in on China's OpenClaw AI craze In January, Beijing-based software engineer Feng Qingyang started tinkering with OpenClaw, a new AI tool that can take over a device and autonomously complete tasks. Within weeks, he was advertising "OpenClaw installation support" on a second-hand shopping site. Today, his side gig is a fully-fledged business with over 100 employees and 7,000 completed orders. Feng is among a small cohort of savvy early adopters making serious cash from China's OpenClaw craze. As users with little technical background want in, a cottage industry of installation services and preconfigured hardware has sprung up. The rise of these tinkerers shows just how eager the general public in China is to adopt cutting-edge AI--despite huge security risks.

The United States and United Kingdom have refused to sign an Artificial Intelligence Action Summit declaration calling for policies "ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy". The summit in Paris on Monday and Tuesday brought together representatives from more than 100 countries to discuss how to reach a consensus on guiding the development of AI. "We are still in the early days, and I already believe AI will be the most profound shift of our lifetimes," Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the summit. The meeting, which was held amid a three-way race for AI dominance, revealed a divide in the priorities of some nations. While Europe is seeking to regulate and invest, China is focused on expanding access through state-backed tech giants, and the US is pushing for a hands-off approach in terms of regulation. Here's what you need to know about the summit and the AI race: Some leaders at the summit emphasised the need for the creation of a diverse and inclusive AI "ecosystem" that is human rights-based, ethical, safe and trustworthy.

Against this backdrop, we have a self-proclaimed pro-tech prime minister, Rishi Sunak. He is trying to entice the lucrative artificial intelligence sector - also largely US-based - to set up camp in the UK. A handful of them - Palantir, OpenAI and Anthropic - have agreed to open London headquarters.

From the advancements in natural language processing that make Siri and Alexa possible, to the machine learning advancements that give robo-advisors their trading chops, AI's ability to simulate human thinking means it can also streamline our lives. It can preempt our needs and requests, making products and services more user friendly as machines learn our needs and figure out how to serve us better.

For years Google has warned users about natural disasters by incorporating alerts from government agencies like FEMA into apps like Maps and Search. Now, the company is making predictions of its own. As part of a partnership with the Central Water Commission of India, Google will now alert users in the country about impending floods. The service is only currently available in the Patna region, with the first alert going out earlier this month. As Google's engineering VP Yossi Matias outlines in a blog post, these predictions are being made using a combination of machine learning, rainfall records, and flood simulations.

The US government may start scrutinizing informal partnerships between American and Chinese companies in the field of artificial intelligence, threatening practices that have long been considered garden variety development work for technology companies, sources familiar with the discussions said. So far, US government reviews for national security and other concerns have been limited to investment deals and corporate takeovers. This possible new expansion of the mandate -- which would serve as a stop-gap measure until Congress imposes tighter restrictions on Chinese investments -- is being pushed by members of Congress, and those in US President Donald Trump's administration who worry about theft of intellectual property and technology transfer to China, according to four people familiar with the matter. Artificial intelligence, in which machines imitate intelligent human behavior, is a particular area of interest because of the technology's potential for military usage, they said. Other areas of interest for such new oversight include semiconductors and autonomous vehicles, they added.

Autonomous driving is catching on globally even though some major work on the technology is still being done in the U.S. The latest company to join the global self-driving race is Microsoft, which has teamed up with its Chinese rival Baidu to spur the global adoption of self-driving. "Today's vehicles already have an impressive level of sophistication when it comes to their ability to capture data. By applying our global cloud AI, machine learning and deep neural network capabilities to that data, we can accelerate the work already being done to make autonomous vehicles safer," Kevin Dallas, corporate vice-president, Microsoft said in the press release Tuesday. Both companies are working on creating the background support for self-driving, including cloud infrastructure, software stack and other services which can support self-driving car functions. Baidu has set-up the Apollo self-driving platform, which the company claims can become the "Android" of the self-driving industry i.e. the company would provide open source software to self-driving car manufacturers just like Google provides to smartphone companies.

Microsoft has ended support for its Windows 8 smartphones, as the US tech giant focuses on other segments, amid ongoing speculation about its strategy for mobile. Users of Windows-powered phones - which have failed badly against rivals from Apple and Google Android - were invited to upgrade to its latest Windows 10 version after Microsoft officially stopped supporting the earlier version on Wednesday. But Microsoft, which is now concentrating on business services, cloud computing, augmented reality, remains a part of the mobile landscape with applications, digital assistants and other offerings. Microsoft has ended support for its Windows 8 smartphones, as the US tech giant focuses on other segments, amid ongoing speculation about its strategy for mobile. 'I think it's the death of Windows 8 phones; not the death of Microsoft's offerings in mobility,' said Moor Insights and Strategy principal analyst Patrick Moorhead.