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Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

reuters.com

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Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#161

Post by antonvs »

throw4847285 wrote: post #53
kibwen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marching humanoid terminator robots will never be as cheap as a drone. Autonomous suicide drone swarms are what should terrify you.

You say that now, but once we perfect AMBAC technology and accidentally release large numbers of Minovsky particles, we will need humanoid combat vehicles to fight our battles!

> Minovsky particles

I love the way these things always have to have names that sound exotic or menacing to English speakers. Where are the Smith particles or the Jim particles?

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#162

Post by AlecSchueler »

phtrivier wrote: post #157
Morromist wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China had more births in 2025 than all of europe and russia combined so I don't think they're going to run out of soldiers.

The births of 2025 will be the warriors of 2050. By then, a bunch of those will be needed to, you know, run things around the country. It's clear that China is going to use tech (as in, artificial wombs, neural implants for optimized beaurocracy, and plenty of robots.) My big question is: - will they keep the human bodies warm to care for the elderly, and send robots to war ? - will they keep the robots to take care…

> China needs to invade Taiwan

> It's clear that China is going to use tech

I hear this all the time but the invasion never seems to come. Is it just western projection at this point?

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#163

Post by antonvs »

plaguuuuuu wrote: post #148
fc417fc802 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have you considered packs of robot dogs with machine guns I don't have it to hand but already a few years ago a defense contractor had attached quite a heavy rifle on some sort of articulable mount to the top of something that looked exactly like Boston Dynamic's Spot. I'm not sure how much ammo it was capable of carrying or what it's range was but it's definitely a concerning development. I think I might become an…

I'll carry an ammo belt of little EMP devices.

A microwave weapon could be effective. And reusable.

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#164

Post by Jtarii »

perlgeek wrote: post #115

> In matches detailed in the study, Ace in April 2025 won three out of five versus elite players and lost two matches against professional players, the top skill level in the sport. Sony AI said that since then Ace beat professional players in December 2025 and last month. What exactly is an "elite" player, if it's not a professional?

Would assume the top amateur players that don't play professionally.

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#165

Post by aslushnikov »

I'm very surprised to see the rapid advancement in robotics these days. After all the fancy demos of Boston Dynamics and others from 10 years ago, and no real advancement beyond them, we kinda learned to treat robotics as "fancy toys".

Now, this feels to me very much like a Deep Blue moment in chess, when to everyone's surprise it won over Garry Kasparov 3.5 to 2.5. 20 years in, and no one even considers competing with chess engines.

This Ace robot won over table tennis professionals in 3 matches and lost in 2. Even the score is similar. I wonder what it'll all look like in 20 years from now.

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#166

Post by eunos »

efskap wrote: post #93
throwatdem12311 wrote: post #87

I don’t care about robots being better than humans at human achievement. Would anyone ever watch Clankers play hockey against eachother at a Clanker Olympics? The idea is absurd, I want to see humans competing because they are humans not just because they are good.

Furthermore, I think we care most about the context surrounding the humans. If a txt2vid model could generate a 100% perfect video of a soccer match, perfectly rendering each blade of grass, would anyone watch it? No, because we care about the team and the stories of the players. Not just the spectacle being shown.

> If a txt2vid model could generate a 100% perfect video of a soccer match, perfectly rendering each blade of grass, would anyone watch it? No, because we care about the team and the stories of the players. Not just the spectacle being shown.

But AI would produce hilarious and memeable soccer matches. Those are enough to reserve your attention and waste your time.

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#167

Post by antonvs »

kruffalon wrote: post #125
SecretDreams wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Marching humanoid terminator robots will never be as cheap as a drone. Autonomous suicide drone swarms are what should terrify you. If money or economics were relevant in these decisions, most wars would probably not play out in the first place. Tesla probably wouldn't be worth 1.2T. And we certainly wouldn't see AI buildouts happening at their current rates. Economics and costs only matter for normal humans, small…

> If money or economics were relevant in these decisions, most wars would probably not play out in the first place. I don't understand what you mean here. Aren't wars fought over natural resources or the political power over natural resources. Obviously people sometimes miscalculate but in principle I mean.

> Aren't wars fought over natural resources or the political power over natural resources.

Not really. They’re fought over fear of the future, desire for control and power over other people. “It’s us or them” captures one of the core calculi of war. It’s not rational, it’s just an expression of evolutionary imperatives.

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#168

Post by rustyhancock »

fhub wrote: post #137
kibwen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marching humanoid terminator robots will never be as cheap as a drone. Autonomous suicide drone swarms are what should terrify you.

Not marching, but Ukraine uses continuous track machine gun robots seemingly very effectively. They aren’t suicide ones. https://archive.is/dpNsN

They are an interesting prospect but their use isn't quite as claimed.

They are extremely vulnerable to the same drones humans are.

It's more along the lines of this is a patch were not expecting active fighting this robot can act as a deterrent and surveillance.

Cheaper and simpler than a loitering IRS drone. But more concentrated in domain.

I believe for a while Samsung developed similar drones for the demilitarised zone in Korea. Those could be static as they were hard wired in.

Re: Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players

#170

Post by tasuki »

DrScientist wrote: post #149
phtrivier wrote: post #20

My biggest fear at the moment is robot armies and police forces. Case in point : we're all expecting China needs to invade Taiwan soon, or they will run out of soldiers because of the one child policies of the 70s/80s. Meanwhile, Ukraine is holding up against a "modern" army with quickly assembled drones. So it all seems a bit like "they'll never put tanks through the Ardennes", sort of ? Where and when will the firs…

Not sure China actually needs to invade Taiwan - it just needs to be patient. cf Hong Kong. Totally agree with you about the dangers of autonomous killing machines - I think the two key problems here are. 1. Reduces the political cost of going to war. Though as Iran has shown, there are other ways to exert political pressure even if the other military can hit you with almost impunity. 2. This is really a follow on fr…

> Not sure China actually needs to invade Taiwan - it just needs to be patient.

An interesting point. China has historically been good at being patient.

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