Sony AI Project Ace Becomes First Robot to Beat Pro Table Tennis Players — Published as Nature Cover Story

Nature·high signal

Sony AI published Project Ace on the cover of Nature on April 23, 2026, marking the first autonomous robot competitive with professional table tennis players. The system integrates event-based sensing with nine cameras, deep reinforcement learning, and an 8-joint robotic platform that executes topspin, slices, and one-armed serves. In March 2026 matches, Ace defeated all three professional opponents at least once — a milestone for real-world physical AI.