At the start of this week, a robot beat human runners in a half-marathon in Beijing. Now, another one can apparently outplay table tennis professionals. Is this how it begins - machines quietly overtaking us, one task at a time?
The answer is yes - and no. In a new study, a robot built by Japanese electronics giant Sony has beaten professional players. But the features that make this possible are anything but human-like. The robot, called “Ace,” has a single arm with eight joints and uses its nine camera eyes to track the ball’s logo and detect its spin.
