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.
By Kartikeya Walia, Nottingham Trent University
A table tennis robot has outperformed elite players in recent evaluations. The robot, called Ace, marks a significant step toward artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can operate in fast, uncertain, real-world environments.
In the tests, the autonomous robot won three out of five matches against elite players – competitive athletes with over ten years’ experience and an average of 20 hours weekly training. The robot, developed by Sony AI, lost both matches against players in professional Japanese leagues, but did win a game against one of them. The system is described in detail in a recent paper published in Nature.
AI has spent decades mastering games. It has repeatedly outperformed the best humans in everything from complex video games like StarCraft II to chess – where modern programs now far exceed human ratings.
