| South Asia: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been keen to double down on AI for years. He was talking about democratizing AI all the way back in 2017 — and now, with Microsoft prioritizing AI investments, Nadella is looking to India for human resources. He has promised to provide training in AI skills to 2 million people in the country by 2025, with a focus on individuals in smaller towns and rural communities. "We want to be India's most trusted partner [for AI]," he said while visiting Bengaluru last week. Nadella also urged India and the U.S. to work together on AI regulation. — Durga M. Sengupta from Bengaluru Latin America: Competition between China and the United States is likely to ramp up in El Salvador after the sweeping reelection victory of President Nayib Bukele. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quick to congratulate Bukele, marking a U-turn in the U.S.' public attacks on the president's anti-constitutional moves. Meanwhile, local media reported that during the electoral campaign, Bukele's government handed out sacks of rice donated by China, which has spent $500 million on infrastructure projects in El Salvador in recent years. Bukele has promised to turn El Salvador into a regional tech hub with the help of Google — and both superpowers appear eager for a slice of the pie. — Karla Zabludovsky from Mexico City Africa: On February 1, a Nigerian High Court gave Flutterwave the green light to commence the recovery of $24 million lost to "unauthorized transactions." The issue, however, is that the transactions are from October 2023, which means the funds may have already been spent by the account holders. Flutterwave has blamed certain point-of-sale agents, who it says "abused their access." This is another episode in what has been a challenging two or three years for Africa's largest fintech. — David Adeleke from Lagos China: Last week, ByteDance announced the resignation of Kelly Zhang Nan as the Douyin Group's CEO. She will be taking on a new role at CapCut, ByteDance's video-editing app, to lead efforts to explore the potential of AI in content creation. Zhang has been recognized as "the most powerful woman in ByteDance," and her departure from Douyin marks a significant structural transition within the company. In recent months, ByteDance has phased out its initiatives in education, virtual reality, and gaming, concentrating instead on Douyin. According to Chinese news website LatePost, there's a general concern among ByteDance executives about the company not moving fast enough on AI, and missing the next wave of innovation. — Caiwei Chen from New York City | 
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