The science of soulmates: Is there someone out there exactly right for you? On Valentine's Day, there's the temptation to believe that somewhere out there is The One: a soulmate, a perfect match, the person you were meant to be with. Across history, humans have always been drawn to the idea that love isn't random. In ancient Greece, Plato imagined that we were once whole beings with four arms, four legs and two faces, so radiant that Zeus split us in two; ever since, each half has roamed the earth searching for its missing other, a myth that gives the modern soulmate its poetic pedigree and the promise that somewhere, someone will finally make us feel complete. In the Middle Ages, troubadours and Arthurian tales recast that longing as courtly love, a fierce, often forbidden devotion like Lancelot's for Guinevere, in which a knight proved his worth through self-sacrifice for a beloved he might never openly declare.

Since 2007 the Assassin's Creed series has allowed players to hack, slash and sneak their way through a range of historical settings. And the latest instalment, Shadows, creeping on to PS5, Xbox and PC from Thursday, grants fans' long-held wish for an adventure set in feudal Japan. It mixes the stealth gameplay of the recent Assassin's Creed Mirage with the combat-focused approach of mega-hit Valhalla and throws ninjas into the mix. But it's being seen by many as a make-or-break title for French publisher Ubisoft, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. After a lacklustre 2024, there's a lot of hope that the twice-delayed Shadows will replicate the sales of previous games in the Assassin's Creed series.

"What are we willing to fight for? What do we deserve, morally speaking? What is our place, our relationship with the universe, with nature?" During a preview of The Talos Principle 2 in August, series writer Jonas Kyratzes posed 19 questions about the essence of humanity in just 90 seconds. Between explanations of new mechanics and puzzle systems, he rattled off deep musings about society and the natural world as easily as if he were reading his weekly grocery list. It felt like these questions were constantly on his mind, poised at the tip of his tongue.

In 1896, the Lumiere brothers released a 50-second-long film, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, and a myth was born. The audiences, it was reported, were so entranced by the new illusion that they jumped out of the way as the flickering image steamed towards them. The urban legend of film-induced mass panic, established well before 1900, illustrated a valid contention if the story was, in fact, untrue: The technology had produced a new emotional reaction. That reaction was hugely powerful but inchoate and inarticulate. Nobody knew what it was doing or where it would go. Nobody had any idea that it would turn into what we call film. Today, the world is in a similar state of bountiful confusion over the creative use of artificial intelligence. Already the power of the new technology is evident to everyone who has managed to use it.

Is it possible to learn how to feel? A research study to validate artificial creativity will discover it. Launching in Spanish, Falta Una Palabra- translated as In Need of a Word is a novel written by Dr. Ángel García-Crespo with the help of AI. It tells the love story of Beatriz and Benito, two people looking for a word to describe the nature of their relationship. Beatriz and Benito share a dilemma that feeds their passion, they can't be together or separated.

It's simple math, really: In a family with eight children, it stands to reason, surely one of them must be queer. Bridgerton has defied other expectations of a Regency-era love story: It is set in an alternate universe where the upper class is fully integrated and race is not an issue. The show's first two seasons focus on interracial romances, and the second season at least obliquely references the history of British colonialism in India. There's one obvious candidate for such a storyline: On the show, Eloise is the most outspoken, most feminist Bridgerton sibling. She is not interested in becoming a debutante, delaying her appearance to pursue another year of studies. She often dismisses marriage, questioning why a husband and children are all that are waiting in store for women.

It is time to move on from traditional love stories to tech-driven love stories. This global tech market is instigating to create a human-robot work relationship as well as a personal relationship. Some humans are preferring artificial intelligence models over human companionship. The current tech-savvy generation has a strong understanding of love stories of robots or robotics love stories in 2022 and beyond. Humans have started cravings for love from AI.

Welcome to Pushing Buttons, the Guardian's gaming newsletter. If you'd like to receive it in your inbox every week, just pop your email in below – and check your inbox (and spam) for the confirmation email. Welcome back to Pushing Buttons! In the spirit of carrying my perennial real-world lateness over into this newsletter, let's talk about love, even though it is now 15 February and everyone will instantly forget about romance again until this time next year. As 500 different articles will already have reminded you this week, so much of the art that we humans make is about wanting someone you can't have, having someone you don't want, missing someone you once had, or sometimes even how much we like person/people we're actually with.

This week we speak to Justin McLeod, founder and chief executive of dating app Hinge. When recovering alcoholic Justin McLeod set up his dating app, it was to help him get over his heartbreak. Five years earlier, his college sweetheart, the woman he thought was the love of his life, had split up with him because of his drink problem. He had subsequently gone to rehab and successfully sobered up, but he had not been able to move on romantically. Not comfortable going into bars because of his addiction issue, he started work on Hinge in 2011 to help him find a new partner.

Over the past 10 years, thousands of movies have hit the world's multiplexes. It's nearly impossible to watch, let alone review, all of them. Yet, looking back over the past decade, it's easy to recall the ones that left indelible marks. The ones that caused audiences to leave the theater gobsmacked (or heartbroken, or mind-blown). For us at WIRED, this list (in chronological order) represents those movies. Not everything here is a genre film--our specialty--but there are probably more sci-fi, fantasy, and comic-book movies here than on any other best-of roundup.