Post #6711

🏓Sony AI built the first robot to beat elite humans in a real sport Sony AI published a Nature paper showcasing Ace, an autonomous table tennis robot that marks a major robotics milestone: the first AI system to defeat elite human athletes in a competitive physical sport under official rules. Why Ace is different: • Ace competes in the messy real world: speed, spin, timing, physics, and pressure. • It reacts, strikes, and adapts in live rallies against trained humans. Insane perception system: • 9 cameras track the ball in 3D space 200 times per second. • Separate gaze systems zoom in mid-flight to detect the ball’s spin axis. • Reads an unmodified ball traveling 20–30 m/s while spinning over 160 rotations/sec. • Full cycle from seeing → deciding → swinging takes 20.2 milliseconds. That’s roughly 10x faster than elite human reaction time. It taught itself, no human coach, no pre-programmed playbook. Trained in simulation for 3,000 hours, playing against itself. Rewarded for stronger shots, more spin, and smarter placement. Results that changed robotics: • In published matches, Ace beat 3 of 5 elite players. • Later, it beat professional players too. • By March 2026, it reportedly defeated multiple pros including Kihara Miyu, ranked around world No. 25. @aipost🏴