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.

Ace, created by the Japanese company Sony's ‌AI research division, is the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport, one that requires rapid decisions and precision execution, the project's leader said. ‌Ace did so by employing high-speed perception, AI-based control and a state-of-the-art robotic system.

There have been various ping-pong-playing robots since 1983, but until now they were unable to rival highly skilled human competitors. Ace changed that with its performances against ​human elite-level and professional players in matches following the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport's governing body, and officiated by licensed umpires.

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/meta-ai/articles/ping-pong-robot-ace-makes-150251244.html

Short video of Ace playing:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-04-22/ping-pong-robot-uses-agentic-ai-video