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Watch Sony’s elite ping-pong robot beat top-ranked players
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech AI Close AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All AI News Close News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All News Watch Sony’s elite ping-pong robot beat top-ranked players Ace is an AI-powered articulated robot that uses 12 cameras to compete against top table tennis players. Ace is an AI-powered articulated robot that uses 12 cameras to compete against top table tennis players. by Andrew Liszewski Close Andrew Liszewski Senior Reporter, News Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Andrew Liszewski Apr 22, 2026, 5:43 PM UTC Link Share Gift Ace is the first robot that can beat the best human players while following the official rules of table tennis. Image: Sony AI Andrew Liszewski Close Andrew Liszewski Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Andrew Liszewski is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. 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 be competitive at table tennis, a particularly difficult game with a ball moving at a high speed and spin that can alter its trajectory, Sony’s researchers developed a robotic system with eight joints. Two joints control the paddle’s position, two adjust its overall orientation, and the other three enable the robot to deliver powerful shots. Ace’s moving parts are assisted by a complicated vision system made up of nine traditional cameras surrounding the court that can locate the position of the ball in 3D space, and three “gaze control systems” that measure the ball’s angular velocity and spin so its trajectory can be accurately calculated. In a study outlining Ace’s capabilities and achievements published in the journal, Nature , today, Sony says that during test matches in April 2025, the robot won three out of five matches against elite players (athletes with more than 10 years of training) and lost two matches to professional players who regularly compete in professional leagues. Sony says Ace went on to defeat professional players in December 2025 and last month, according to Reuters . Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Andrew Liszewski Close Andrew Liszewski Senior Reporter, News Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Andrew Liszewski AI Close AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All AI News Close News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All News Robot Close Robot Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Robot Science Close Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Science Sony Close Sony Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Sony Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Most Popular Most Popular Anthropic’s most dangerous AI model just fell into the wrong hands Framework is building a better couch keyboard because everyone hates the Logitech one Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want Framework announces Laptop 13 Pro, ‘the MacBook Pro for Linux users’ Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets a price cut but loses new Call of Duty games The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Advertiser Content From This is the title for the native ad
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