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News & Current Events Apr 22, 2026 at 5:12 PM

AI-powered robot beats elite table tennis players

Posted by jupa300

AI-powered robot beats elite table tennis players
the Guardian
AI-powered robot beats elite table tennis players
In feat hailed as milestone in robotics, Sony AI’s Ace wins three out of five matches played under official rules
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24 Comments

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Icy_Hovercraft_1110 Apr 22, 2026 +11
Trying to read the movements of that robot would be way harder than playing against a human.
11
swizzcheez Apr 22, 2026 +27
And my roomba can beat *anyone* in limbo, except Hermes Conrad of course.
27
tedsmitts Apr 22, 2026 +10
You haven't seen the last of Barbados Slim! Now, goodbye forever.
10
Violet_Paradox Apr 22, 2026 +27
So does a wall.
27
Fun-Page-6211 Apr 22, 2026 +6
This is a reason why this article is a nothingburger.
6
Volistar Apr 22, 2026 +1
Why do you add burger at the end of nothing? Serious question.
1
Fun-Page-6211 Apr 22, 2026 +1
It is actually a word to mean that it is nothing
1
grunt_monkey_ Apr 22, 2026 +1
Cos then you still get the bun.
1
Nashadelic Apr 23, 2026 +1
just like competing with a wall
1
lkc159 Apr 23, 2026 +2
The wall can't return a ball; the ball just bounces off it. It feels like you'd be able to angle the shot so the wall's "returned" ball misses the table completely.
2
Think_Assistant_1656 Apr 23, 2026 +1
what an useless comment, it's surreal you cannot understand the work that went behind this achievement
1
ResearcherSad9357 Apr 22, 2026 +11
Computers beat Gary Kasparov at chess 30+ years ago, have all chess players been replaced yet? Robotic arms have been in use for decades doing even more impressive high precision tasks than this.
11
rubywpnmaster Apr 22, 2026 +6
Yes. The AIs are so good at chess now it’s considered a fluke if a grandmaster can beat them. Humans have to play human chess or they get f****** obliterated.
6
ResearcherSad9357 Apr 23, 2026 +1
And yet human played chess is more popular than ever and nobody cares about the bot tournaments.
1
jphamlore Apr 22, 2026 +5
Is the technology there for a robot to be the world's best golfer?
5
CIS-E_4ME Apr 22, 2026 +2
It's got the golf part down, but it's struggling with drunkenly driving a car into a ditch.
2
asdhjasdhlkjashdhgf Apr 22, 2026 +2
it would be "fair" only when the maximal parallel cameras looking at the scene have similar distance than a human vision, the photo suggests otherwise - means two fundamental different systems are compared and the use of the word AI only glosses over such facts. Predicting a curve and speed in 3d is somewhat 70's/80's, field of vision is another ballgame - literally (see the black curtains around the scene?).
2
Silvershanks Apr 22, 2026 +2
Um.... how is this news? How is this a story? Are we amazed when a blender can out-perform a human at blending? I'm not knocking the quality engineering that people achieved here - but come on. This is dumb.
2
lkc159 Apr 23, 2026 +2
>blender can out-perform a human at blending? I think the equivalent comparison would be an AI operated blender/AI blender outperforming a human using a blender.
2
PumpkinHead01 Apr 22, 2026
Wow so we've managed to build a computer to beat a human at physical pong. A feat not achieved since....1972
0
jupa300 Apr 22, 2026 -10
> In feat hailed as milestone in robotics, Sony AI’s Ace wins three out of five matches played under official rules Seems we will achieve Singularity somewhat earlier than prediction.
-10
michal_hanu_la Apr 22, 2026 +3
Specifically, the much more narrowly defined Table Tennis Singularity. (By the way, I have this car that runs faster than Usain Bolt. Cool, right? When it happens to start, that is.)
3
NinjaEngineer Apr 23, 2026 +1
Yeah... Because predicting a ball's trajectory is something no computer has managed to do before.
1
-password-invalid- Apr 23, 2026 +1
Robot designed to do one thing only, does it well.
1
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