A paddle-wielding robot is so adept at playing table tennis that it is posing a tough challenge to elite human players and sometimes defeating them, according to a new study that shows how advances in artificial intelligence are making robots more agile.

An autonomous robot ping-pong player dubbed Ace has achieved a milestone for AI and robotics in Tokyo by competing against and sometimes defeating top-level human players at table tennis, a feat that could presage an array of other applications for similarly adept robots.

Scientists at Sony AI have developed a table tennis robot with enough speed and precision to beat even some expert ping pong players in the latest matchup between biological and artificial intelligenc

Sony AI's table tennis robot, Ace. (Sony AI) Table tennis is one of the most skill-intensive sports on the planet – and engineers have now built a robot capable of besting some of the world's top players.

BEIJING — It was not even close as a bright red Chinese humanoid named “Lightning” lived up to its name in a half-marathon pitting humans against robots, smoking its competition on Sunday

Ace, an autonomous robot powered by AI, cutting-edge sensors and an extremely dexterous arm with eight joints, has played competition-rule table tennis and beaten elite human competitors. The robot is the first machine to excel at the sport.

The Infinite Loop by Nebius reports robots like Digit are learning to work in warehouses, balancing safety and AI for future home integration, and its current focus is on navigating human environments safely.

Swiss scientists have published research showing AI-informed robots can learn how to self correct and teach other robots how to behave. It raises questions of consciousness in artificial intelligence.

We are now in the humanoid robot era, and they're starting to show up in our homes. But are they any good? And what's the path to improvement?