A non-profit organisation OpenAI, that was co-founded by Elon Musk, has revealed its advanced robotic hand system which is able to teach itself to manipulate everyday objects using a human-like hand.

The research company, set up by the tech entrepreneur to “benefit humanity as a whole”, thinks the dexterous hand is “one step closer to bringing true artificial intelligence in the real world”.

The state-of-the-art mechanical hand, known as "Dactyl", represents a breakthrough in robotics, where experts have long struggled to mimic the nimble movements of the human hand.

Dactyl learnt its movements using computer simulations, involving repeated trial and error experiments with a virtual robot hand until it slowly perfected complicated movements. The information was then transferred to the real robot hand.