Ping pong bot
Reuters reports on Ace, a ping pong-playing robot created by AI researechers at Sony, was able to beat some of the world's best human players.
Will Dunham writes:
In matches detailed in the study, Ace in April 2025 won three out of five versus elite players and lost two matches against professional players, the top skill level in the sport. Sony AI said that since then Ace beat professional players in December 2025 and last month.
Of course, Sony's ambition here isn't to make a champion table tennis player, fun as that is. Broader applications can follow:
The project's goal was not only to compete at table tennis but to develop insights into how robots can perceive, plan and act with human-like speed and precision in dynamic environments, Dürr said.
"The success of Ace, with its perception system and learning-based control algorithm, suggests that similar techniques could be applied to other areas requiring fast, real-time control and human interaction - such as manufacturing and service robotics, as well as applications across sports, entertainment and safety-critical physical domains," said Dürr, lead author of a study describing Ace's achievements published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
At some point I'm sure someone will come up with some kind of Humans v Robots Olympic Games. Though how long that will last is questionable. At a certain point the robots will just never lose.