AI-powered robot beats elite table tennis players

The first “Familiar” from Colin Angle’s new startup, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a robot that is designed to live in your home and interact autonomously with family members. | Image: Familiar Machines and Magic Colin Angle, the maker of the Roomba and the man who helped put 50 million household robots into people's homes, is back with a new robot. But this one is designed as a companion, not a cleaner. The first robot from Angle's new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a dog-sized robotic pet that resembles a cross between a bear, a barn owl, and a golden retriever. It has an expressive face, with movable eyebrows, ears, and eyes, and the company calls it a "Familiar," a name meant to evoke folklore around the idea of a supernatural companion. Based on a demo video I saw ahead of its appearance at the WSJ Future of Everything conference this w … Read the full story at The Verge.

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The latest real-world robot application joins a host of other workplace trial runs of the autonomous machines.

Ace can read the trajectory of a ball, adjust the racket angle, and respond with strokes that keep the exchange alive with real players.

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, April 23: Le Parisien reports on an "unprecedented" criminal complaint filed against food delivery giants UberEats and Deliveroo for human trafficking in France. Le Monde looks at the important role of priests in the war in Ukraine and we also look at a suggestion to rename the Donbas to "Donnyland", in a bid to soften Donald Trump's hardline stance. Plus: the rise of "Age Tech" and Sony's AI robot Ace beats elite table tennis players in a groundbreaking experiment.

An autonomous table tennis robot developed by Sony AI has competed against and defeated high-level human players in regulated matches, according to Reuters. The system is part of a broader category often referred to as “physical AI,” where artificial intelligence is applied to machines operating in real-world environments. The robot, named Ace, was designed to […] The post Sony AI robot beats players as humanoid robot wins Beijing race appeared first on AI News.

Ace is the first robot that can beat the best human players while following the official rules of table tennis. | Image: Sony AI Humans have been building ping-pong playing robots for decades, such as Omron's FOREPHUS that challenged amateur competitors at CES 2017. What sets Ace apart from the rest is that the robot, which was developed by Sony's AI division, is the first that can hold its own against top-ranked human players and occasionally even beat them in matches that follow the official rules of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). AI is already capable of besting humans at games like Chess and Go, but physical games pose a much greater challenge as robots have to be engineered to match the speed and responsiveness of the human mind and body. To b … Read the full story at The Verge.

Ace rotates its paddle as it prepares to return the ball back to its human opponent, Yamato Kawamata, during a match in December 2025. Credit: Sony AI. In an article published today in Nature, Sony AI introduce Ace, the first robot to beat elite human players in competitive physical sport. Although AI systems have shown […]