<\/p>\n
Peter D\u00fcrr could barely follow the table-tennis ball because it zoomed across the web, each strike\u2019s trajectory designed to perplex the opponent. This was no bizarre match: Taira Mayuka, one in every of the highest players on this planet, was on one side\u2014on the opposite, was a robot called Ace.<\/p>\n
Mayuka launched a twisting smash that ought to have nailed a degree. But within the blink of a watch, Ace answered with a return that kept the sport alive. \u201cYes!\u201d D\u00fcrr pumped his fist, knowing his team had engineered a historic moment for robotics.<\/p>\n
Sony AI\u2019s Ace<\/a> is the most recent autonomous system to be pitted against humans in a game. Since Deep Blue<\/a> defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, AI has trounced humans in Jeopardy<\/a>, Go, StarCraft II<\/a>, and car-racing simulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ace has now taken these virtual victories into the true world.<\/p>\n Up against seven top human players, the AI-controlled robot arm beat three in multiple adrenaline-pumping games. Ace is an \u201cessential milestone,\u201d wrote<\/a> Carlos H. C. Ribeiro and Esther Colombini on the Aeronautics Institute of Technology and University of Campinas, respectively, who weren’t involved within the study.<\/p>\n Ace joins a humanoid robot that crushed the world record for a half marathon in Beijing last week. Neither project is concentrated on creating elite robotic athletes. Their principal goal is to construct next-generation autonomous machines that operate fluidly within the physical world.<\/p>\n \u201cWe desired to prove that AI doesn\u2019t just exist in virtual spaces,\u201d Michael Spranger, president of Sony AI, said<\/a> in a press release. \u201cIt\u2019s not only tech you interact with within the virtual world\u2014you’ll be able to even have a physical experience, and the technology is prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n