Ian Sample

This is The Guardian.

Last month at the London Marathon, Sebastian Saway smashed the sub-two-hour barrier, shaving 65 seconds off the previous fastest time.

But it wasn't the only record-breaking race that caught the world's attention in April.

In Beijing's half marathon, a robot named Lightning beat the human record by a whopping seven minutes.

It's just the latest in what feels like an acceleration of robotic breakthroughs powered by AI.

And the country racing ahead of all the others?

Lightning's birthplace, China.

But beyond running really fast, what do we actually want from robots?

What will it take for them to get there?

And are we ready for what happens when they do?

I'm The Guardian's science editor, Ian Sample, and this is Science Weekly.

Amy Hawkins, you're The Guardian's senior China correspondent, and you've been looking into China's robotics boom.

So first of all, who is this company behind the half marathon robot?

Have they been in business for years or are they new?

What's their story?

So this is really coming about through this sort of marriage of AI with robotics.

I mean, who are the most important companies?

And are they the sort of the longtime big players or are there disruptive companies coming through?

You talk about Unity trying to raise this 600 million at IPO.

What is the scale of the investment going into robotics in China?