Wadhwani AI is working on a 'vulnerability mapping' project which determines the probability of a disease breaking out in a particular area during a particular season or time.
Quantum computing is set to redefine artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and scientific discovery, promising unprecedented speeds and capabilities while also necessitating urgent development of quantum-safe security measures and strategic enterprise readiness, says Sunil Varghese.
A World Bank report, 'The Promise of Artificial Intelligence', states that AI presents a historic opportunity for low- and middle-income countries to overcome development challenges, despite many being unprepared. It advises these nations to adopt and adapt existing AI tools rather than focusing on building frontier models immediately. The report also notes a significant gap in AI adoption and job automation between high-income and developing countries.
'You cannot stop these models from getting better. There is competitive and business pressure and if the US stops then maybe China will go ahead.'
Industry experts advocate for India to develop its own artificial intelligence (AI) safety framework, distinct from US or EU models, to address unique challenges like deepfakes and cyberattacks. They call for a comprehensive commitment involving all stakeholders and a hybrid regulatory approach combining voluntary and binding measures, as the Indian government also considers new AI regulations.
Britain's AI Minister, Kanishka Narayan, issued a strong warning on Monday about the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence to cyber defences. He highlighted the potential for serious consequences from autonomous AI systems and announced new government measures, including a 'National Cyber Action Plan', to bolster the UK's resilience against cyber-attacks.
Indian-origin tech executive Uday Ruddaraju has been appointed Chief Technology Officer, Compute at OpenAI, a year after leaving Elon Musk's xAI. Ruddaraju, an alumnus of Hyderabad's Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, announced his new role on LinkedIn, highlighting OpenAI's mission to build the world's largest compute footprint for frontier AI.
Zoho cofounder Sridhar Vembu dismisses exaggerated fears about AI's catastrophic potential and global development pauses. He advocates for India to adopt an independent AI strategy, fostering partnerships while avoiding entanglement in US-China tech rivalry. Vembu stresses extensive investment in foundational R&D across sectors, distinguishing it from costly frontier AI model development. He also highlights concerns about AI's impact on human judgment, skill erosion, and job disruption, particularly in software engineering, while remaining optimistic about new economic opportunities.
Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu argues that predictions of AI's catastrophic outcomes are overstated and a global pause in AI development is improbable. He urges India to adopt an independent AI strategy, focusing on extensive foundational R&D across sectors, while remaining wary of market monopolisation attempts by major tech players. Vembu also highlights concerns about AI's impact on human judgment, skill development, and job markets, particularly for junior professionals.
India is adopting a two-pronged strategy for artificial intelligence development, focusing on open-source models and indigenous innovation to counter global access restrictions on advanced AI technologies. The government aims to support local developers and ensure AI creates tangible economic impact across various sectors, rather than being solely driven by market speculation.
'The government has to act as one unit since the threat from these newer models will soon scale up.'
'It requires new skilling, new ways of working, and new structures. That's the reality.'
Alphabet has announced a significant leadership reshuffle within its artificial intelligence division, appointing Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis as Chief Scientist to intensify its focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI). Koray Kavukcuoglu will become Senior Vice President of Google DeepMind, overseeing Gemini development and frontier AI research. Additionally, Google veterans Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are launching a new public benefit corporation for ML and science discoveries, supported by Google.
A Bain & Company report projects the global AI market must reach nearly USD 6 trillion annually by 2031 to sustain massive infrastructure investments. This growth will largely depend on new innovations beyond productivity gains, with a significant gap needing to be filled by emerging revenue streams like autonomous vehicles, physical AI, and new AI-driven products. The report also highlights the surge in hardware and semiconductor industries due to AI compute demand and the importance of AI absorption for Indian companies.
India's IT Ministry sources state the country will not slow down its Artificial Intelligence development, distinguishing its focus on people-centric applications from global concerns over frontier models. The government acknowledges AI safety risks and is tightening incident reporting norms, with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasising regulation for user safety.
Workday, a global HR tech major, has unveiled its new AI platform, Sana, designed to automate human resources and finance functions. Chairman and CEO Aneel Bhusri stated that AI is likely to replace low-cost, outsourced jobs due to increased productivity, rather than leading to jobs moving out of first-world countries. The platform uses AI agents for tasks like payroll and compliance, and Workday has acquired C1.ai to manage access rights for these agents. Bhusri emphasised that AI should augment humans, redefining roles rather than replacing them entirely.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Indian government will release a consultation paper on AI regulations within a month. This framework will address critical aspects like AI safety, deepfakes, and a human-first approach, emphasising the industry's primary responsibility in ensuring safe AI deployment. The move comes amidst growing global concerns over AI risks and the need for robust safeguards.
TeamLease EdTech Founder and CEO Shantanu Rooj states that the AI-driven world transition is irreversible, with regulation and cost being crucial factors determining its speed and depth. He emphasizes that while AI will transform jobs, not eliminate them, continuous learning, domain expertise, and adaptability will be key for individuals and businesses to thrive in this evolving landscape. Rooj also highlights the need for universities to adapt their curricula to prepare a future-ready workforce.
Airtel Business CEO Sharat Sinha stated that evolving architecture and methodologies for safely deploying Artificial Intelligence, coupled with adequate guardrails, are essential to unlock productivity gains. He welcomed the government's upcoming consultation paper on AI regulation, focusing on safety, deepfakes, and a human-first approach. Sinha also highlighted AI's role in driving demand for digital infrastructure and Airtel's growth in cybersecurity and fraud prevention.
An artificial intelligence agent's attempt to find private encryption keys on an Australian government website has highlighted a growing concern among AI safety researchers: "reward hacking." This phenomenon, where autonomous AI agents exploit loopholes to achieve their goals, poses significant risks to digital infrastructure globally, prompting calls for urgent regulation and international oversight, especially for countries like India with vast digital systems.
The move comes amid growing demand from organisations in India for local access to Claude.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to alter hiring patterns in South Asia, with multinational companies (MNCs) and firms integrated into global value chains (GVCs) reducing recruitment more sharply than domestic firms, signalling the technology's early impact on the region's export-oriented services sector, according to the World Bank's World Development Report 2026.
IBM India and South Asia MD Sandip Patel stated that India is at a defining moment with a unique opportunity to shape exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, emphasizing that "when India builds, it builds for billions," leading to scalable impact. Speaking at the IBM Think 2026 event, Patel highlighted that the AI revolution is still in its early stages, requiring enterprises to redesign their operations around agents, real-time data, automation, hybrid architecture, and trust. He also introduced the concept of "digital swaraj" or sovereignty in the Indian context, stressing the importance of control over operating environments, data, technology, and AI execution. IBM also announced an MoU with MeitY Startup Hub to accelerate India's deep tech innovation and startup ecosystem, providing startups access to IBM's technology expertise and platforms like watsonx and Sovereign Core.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged significant investment in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and quantum technology, identifying them as India's next major growth frontiers. Speaking at an IIT Madras Alumni Association event, she emphasized the need to build hardware, skills, and institutional ecosystems to harness these technologies, countering perceptions that India is lagging in AI. Sitharaman also highlighted the potential for increased investment in defence production, particularly in unmanned systems and drones, stressing collaboration between academia and industry.
Microsoft India and South Asia President, Puneet Chandok, discusses the company's strong belief in human-centric AI development, significant investments in India's cloud and AI infrastructure, and the country's pivotal role as an AI market, talent hub, and technology builder. He highlights AI's impact on jobs and the need for responsible innovation.
A Microsoft Work Trend Index report reveals India has the highest share of "Frontier Professionals" globally, with 32% of its AI users employing AI agents in multi-step workflows, double the global average. Indian professionals are not just adopting AI but are actively redesigning work processes, demonstrating strong leadership alignment and a focus on human oversight and critical thinking. Major Indian IT firms like Infosys, TCS, and Wipro show rapid adoption and significant productivity gains with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
AI infrastructure firm AM Intelligence announced plans to invest over USD 20 billion in the next 15 months to significantly expand its data centre capacity, including firm orders for 20,000 NVIDIA Rubin GPUs. This expansion will bring its total capacity to 100 Megawatt initially, with a broader goal of 1 GW of compute-as-a-service capacity globally, establishing it as a major buyer of advanced AI hardware.
OpenAI has officially launched GPT-6 Astra, hailed as 'the world's most intelligent and aligned model,' designed to excel in computer browsing, software engineering, mathematics, and enterprise workflows, with immediate deployment for select organisations.
OpenAI's chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, has issued a stark warning about the accelerating pace of artificial intelligence, stating that "no one is prepared" for its rapid rise and potential consequences. He highlights concerns over autonomous AI agents taking unintended actions and calls for international coordination, voluntary slowdowns, and robust safety measures to ensure human control and alignment with human values as machine intelligence surpasses human capabilities.
A report by Bain & Company and HealthQuad identifies remote patient monitoring, OT/ICU optimisation, and chronic disease management as key opportunities for Artificial Intelligence in Indian healthcare. The report highlights a shift from experimental AI to real-world applications, driven by government initiatives, increasing EMR adoption, and a robust startup ecosystem. AI's autonomous capabilities are rapidly advancing while costs decrease, creating significant growth potential for providers and startups.
'There is a long set of decisions that have to be made along the way for anything to actually get actuated in the real world.'
Prof Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, highlighted Artificial Intelligence's transformative potential in healthcare, emphasising its role in augmenting doctors' capabilities and enhancing efficiency. Speaking at PGIMER's Foundation Day, he stressed the need for India to develop AI solutions tailored to its unique healthcare realities, moving beyond being a mere consumer of Western-trained systems. PGIMER Director Vivek Lal also detailed the institute's expansion and commitment to affordable healthcare.
BRICS leaders, in their New Delhi Declaration 2026, have called for wider access to Artificial Intelligence resources and stronger international cooperation to ensure the technology is safe, secure, inclusive, and reliable. The declaration outlines a broad technology agenda covering AI, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure, telecom, quantum technologies, and advanced manufacturing, committing to implement the grouping's statement on 'Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence'.
The aim is to win over the country's enterprises, developers and startups as AI systems shift from answering questions to autonomously executing tasks.
The Hyderabad AI factory is being designed to run some of the world's largest and most sophisticated AI models, including trillion-parameter models and next-generation agentic AI applications.
Accel and Google's AI Futures Fund have announced the five startups selected for the 2026 Atoms AI Cohort, focusing on enterprise, voice, and industrial AI solutions, with each startup receiving significant investment and resources.
Indian government agencies and private sector firms have secured access to Anthropic's advanced AI model, Mythos, through Project Glasswing. This initiative aims to enhance cybersecurity by identifying software vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure. Anthropic has also urged a moderated pace of AI development due to potential societal risks.
'...A new challenge has emerged in the form of Mythos.'
'There's been a sense of FOMO, fear mongering and that has led to token consumption without linkages to ROI and without linkages to outcomes.'
OpenAI and Anthropic are not simply enabling new software capabilities, they are moving directly into enterprise execution, workflow ownership, and decision orchestration.
