Sony AI Robot Beats Human Pros at Table Tennis
Saturday, 2026/04/25153 words2 minutes245 reads
Sony has created a table tennis robot called Ace that can compete with professional human players. The robot uses artificial intelligence and has nine cameras positioned around the court to track the ball's movement and spin.
Ace learned to play through reinforcement learning, gaining skills from experience rather than programming. Sony built an Olympic-sized court in Tokyo where professional athletes competed against the robot. The matches were judged by official umpires from the Japanese Table Tennis Association.
The robot has eight joints that allow it to position the racket and respond quickly to opponents. Sony researchers made sure the robot's speed and reach were comparable to skilled human athletes, so it wins through strategy and decision-making rather than superhuman abilities.
In December, Ace defeated all but one of four high-skill players. One Olympic athlete said the robot made shots he thought were impossible, suggesting humans might learn new techniques from watching it play.
