Sony AI researchers have developed Ace, a sophisticated robot that competes at table tennis against professional and amateur athletes, successfully defeating amateur players in 3 of 5 matches. The research, published in Nature, demonstrates advances in embodied AI by combining real-time perception of ball rotation, rapid decision-making, and precise physical control via an eight-jointed arm. This represents a significant milestone in robotics, as table tennis has long been considered one of the most challenging tests of physical AI systems.
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Ace the Ping-Pong Robot Can Whup Your Ass
Sony's Ace robot advances embodied AI by combining real-time ball-spin perception with millisecond decision-making and precise robotic control, defeating amateur table tennis players in a Nature-published milestone for physical AI systems.
Saturday, April 25, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: WIRED AIBY sys://pipeline
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