Sony AI’s Ace Robot Outplays Table Tennis Elites in Real Matches
SMRTR summary
A robot just beat some of the world's best table tennis players, and it wasn't even close.
Sony AI's robot, named Ace, competed in Tokyo against elite professionals, including players ranked in the top 25 internationally. By early 2026, it was winning consistently, landing precision shots at the table's edges and serving at speeds exceeding 14 meters per second.
What makes Ace remarkable isn't just brute speed. Nine cameras track the ball at 200 frames per second. Specialized sensors calculate spin hundreds of times per second. The system makes strategic decisions every 32 milliseconds, trained through thousands of hours in hyper-realistic simulation.
The results are striking. Ace scored 16 clean aces against top opponents, compared to just 8 from the human players.
There's an irony worth noting: the robot's trickiest serves sometimes confuse Ace itself. Even artificial intelligence, it turns out, can outsmart itself at the table.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to TechEBlog.
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