In week three of Rhik Samadder’s diary, our resident AI skeptic let AI give him a tour of London’s best-kept secrets

I recently met a friend for a drink who’d just visited three galleries. She was having a cultural day – curated for her by AI. Based on what it knew about her, it suggested exhibitions she’d enjoy, places to eat, even the best routes between stops. I was stunned. (Was I part of the itinerary?)

As part of my skeptic AI diary, I decide to use it to rediscover my hometown. I ask the ChatGPT to plan a full day out about town in London, packed with activities I might not normally choose. I tell the AI to ask me a few questions first, to gauge what I’ll enjoy and steer clear of neighbourhoods I already know well. I also ask it to check in after each stop, to vibe-check what comes next and offer backup options.

After writing about a racist attack on his last album, the award-winning musician wanted his new work to be happier. Then life took him down a different path. He discusses stigma, shame and how he got help

The past five years have been punishing for Isaac Borquaye, AKA the British rapper Guvna B. In 2021, he was left without sight in one eye for several months after being targeted in an unprovoked racist attack at his local coffee shop in east London. It left him shaken, but also motivated him to write his searing 2023 album The Village Is on Fire, which questioned structural racism. The album’s cover featured a closeup image of his bloodied eye.

In the opening track, the 36-year-old musician intersperses his own words – “Coffee in his hand and he dashed it in my face / Five seconds later, right hook to my socket” – with voice notes his cousin, the actor and writer Michaela Coel, left him in the days after the attack. The record immediately became one of his most streamed, with listeners drawn not only to his frank recounting of the attack but also to his thoughts on youth violence and gentrification, and his grief at the death of his father in 2017. His new, equally confessional album – more on which shortly – tackles even more thorny themes.

Chantelle would like Hugo to show more affection when they are out. You decide who is being touchy
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Friends and family have noticed that we don’t hold hands and it’s become a running joke

I find holding hands annoying. Besides, I’m quite caring and I tell her I love her on a daily basis

How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? I visited 11 companies in five Chinese cities to find out

Chen Liang, the founder of Guchi Robotics, an automation company headquartered in Shanghai, is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-40s with square-rimmed glasses. His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element – up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human workers by robots – he wears an exuberant smile that brings to mind an intern on his first day at his dream job. Guchi makes the machines that install wheels, dashboards and windows for many of the top Chinese car brands, including BYD and Nio. He took the name from the Chinese word guzhi, “steadfast intelligence”, though the fact that it sounded like an Italian luxury brand was not entirely unwelcome.

For the better part of two decades, Chen has tried to solve what, to him, is an engineering problem: how to eliminate – or, in his view, liberate – as many workers in car factories as technologically possible. Late last year, I visited him at Guchi headquarters on the western outskirts of Shanghai. Next to the head office are several warehouses where Guchi’s engineers tinker with robots to fit the specifications of their customers. Chen, an engineer by training, founded Guchi in 2019 with the aim of tackling the hardest automation task in the car factory: “final assembly”, the last leg of production, when all the composite pieces – the dashboard, windows, wheels and seat cushions – come together. At present, his robots can mount wheels, dashboards and windows on to a car without any human intervention, but 80% of the final assembly, he estimates, has yet to be automated. That is what Chen has set his sights on.

Josh Toussaint-Strauss discovers that great restaurants are disappearing on Google Maps, despite having lots of reviews and high ratings, so he sets out to get to the bottom of it and finds out that what Google Maps shows us isn't necessarily what we want to see. Josh discusses the issue with Lauren Leek, a social data scientist, who grew so frustrated with Google's results that she decided to build her own map of London's restaurants. You can check out Lauren's alternative map here

They like to keep things private, but the Hollywood stars keep dropping clues. Did they recently tie the knot – or is this all just promo?

Congratulations to Zendaya and Tom Holland, the widely liked gen Z power couple who recently got married after nearly a decade together. Or did they?

Weeks after Zendaya’s stylist, Law Roach, seemed to spill the news on the red carpet, rumours are still swirling, with neither (alleged) bride nor (purported) groom rushing to put them to rest.

US defence secretary says America ‘will finish this’ in Iran war briefing

• The war cost the US $12.7bn by day six. Here’s how it’s been spent – in charts

Turning to Australia now, a petrol tsar will manage “unprecedented” supply issues caused by the Middle East conflict as the finishing touches are put on measures to address dire shortages in many regional areas.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese convened a snap virtual meeting of the national cabinet on Thursday to discuss major price shocks and shortages driven by the US-Israel war on Iran.

My government will be announcing more measures to prepare the nation for supply chain challenges over coming days and weeks.

Our fuel supply is currently secure. However, I want us to be over-prepared.

Now, the total is likely to have exceeded $18bn and counting. Where are America’s war dollars going, in a war that was never declared in the first place?

Month-ahead UK wholesale gas price hits highest level since August 2022 as Donald Trump threatens retaliation

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• Business live – latest updates

Gas prices jumped to four-year highs and oil prices rose again after an escalation of attacks by Israel and Iran on gasfields heightened fears of prolonged disruption to international energy supplies.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose by 8% to $116 a barrel. Crude prices have soared by 60% since the US-Israeli war on Iran started on 28 February.

Chair Heather Hallett says pandemic had devastating impact due to NHS being in ‘parlous state’ at time

The NHS “teetered on the brink of collapse” during the Covid pandemic, and only just coped thanks to the “superhuman” efforts of healthcare workers, an official inquiry has concluded.

In a damning assessment of how the UK’s healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, the Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, said the impact was “devastating” due to the NHS being in a “parlous state” before the outbreak of the virus.

The NHS entered the pandemic with low bed numbers, high numbers of staff vacancies and high bed occupancy, meaning it was already in a “precarious position” and ill-prepared to deal with a pandemic.

There was not enough PPE at the start of the pandemic, meaning healthcare workers had to put themselves and their families at risk to care for patients.

Infection control in the early stages of the pandemic was flawed as it assumed Covid-19 was spread by physical contact, rather than being airborne.

The “stay home, protect the NHS, save lives” public message may have inadvertently led to a decline in hospital attendance of life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks.

80% of healthcare professionals said they acted in a way that conflicted with their values during the pandemic, with some saying they felt they were “playing God” as they were unable to give everyone the treatment they needed.