China’s Race to Build Robot Hands That Actually Work

Human hands are the most complex part of the skeleton—nimble, packed with nerves, and capable of delicate tasks like tying shoelaces or buttoning a shirt. These actions require intricate neurological commands and precise coordination. For thousands of years, no machine has truly replicated this human tool. Now, as artificial intelligence (AI) advances rapidly, some companies believe they are close to overcoming this final, hardest hurdle in robotics. Most of them are in China. The race to develop “embodied AI” focuses on creating dextrous hands that can turn humanoid robots from novelties into useful products.