The race to develop robotic hands, memories of legendary gigs and the sea as medicine for the brain

Composite: Cavan Images RF; Emmanuel Wong/The Guardian, Getty Images/Cavan Images RF Composite: Cavan Images RF; Emmanuel Wong/The Guardian, Getty Images/Cavan Images RFNeed something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days1. China wants to solve the hardest problem in robotics – making hands Photograph: Emmanuel Wong/The GuardianOur nimble, nerve-filled appendages are the most flexible part of the human skeleton. Many tasks that most people can do largely without thinking, from tying a pair of shoelaces to buttoning up a shirt, in fact require a complex set of neurological instructions and precise choreography. Amy Hawkins reported from Beijing on how the race to develop “embodied AI” focuses on creating dextrous hands to transform humanoid robots from gimmicks into useful products.Read more2. How AI is changing language Illustration: Pete Reynolds/The Guardian

double quotation markThe problem is that not only does AI train on human writing, but humans are stylistically influenced by AI, the interplay creating a kind of linguistic hall of mirrors. Short of an author admitting it, it’s hard to say for certain whether an individual piece of writing is AI or not. That uncertainty is a recipe for paranoia.