In an article published today in Nature, Sony AI introduce Ace, the first robot to beat elite human players in competitive physical sport. Although AI systems have shown advanced performance in digital domains and board games (such as complex video games, chess and Go), translating this to physical performance has remained a significant challenge. Such a feat requires perception, planning, and control to work in a high-speed domain on the scale of milliseconds. Table tennis is a demanding and complex real-world test for robotics, requiring rapid decision-making, precise physical execution, and continuous adaptation to an unpredictable opponent. The ball's high speed, spin, and complex trajectories are central to competitive play.

When the AVA AI Robot videographer hit Kickstarter, it confirmed a lot of what I'd thought was already possible. A few camera manufacturers are working on improving their AI algorithms. Canon and Sony do a great job already. Even Leica boasts those capabilities. But understanding how an AI Camera works is even more exciting.