Prof Peter Stone

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) systems now challenge or surpass human experts in many computer games. Physical and real-time sports such as table tennis, however, remain a major open challenge because of their requirements for fast, precise and adversarial interactions near obstacles and at the edge of human reaction time. This talk presents Ace, to our knowledge the first real-world autonomous system competitive with elite human table tennis players. Ace addresses the challenges of physical real-time interaction through a new, high-speed perception system using event-based vision sensors, and a new control

system based on model-free reinforcement learning, as well as state-of-the-art high-speed robot hardware. Evaluated in matches against elite and professional players under official competition rules, Ace achieved several victories and demonstrated consistent returns of high-speed, high-spin shots. These results highlight the potential of physical AI agents to perform complex, real-time interactive tasks, suggesting broader applications in domains requiring fast, precise human-robot interaction.

Biography:

Professor Peter Stone is the Truchard Foundation Chair in Computer Science, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also the Founding Director of Texas Robotics and Founder and Director of the Learning Agents Research Group within the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Peter is Chief Scientist at Sony AI and a co-founder of Cogitai, Inc. His research focuses on creating complete intelligent agents through advances in machine learning, multiagent systems, robotics, adaptation, interaction, and embodiment. He has made significant contributions to AI applications including robot soccer, autonomous vehicles, autonomous bidding agents, and human-interactive agents.

His research has been recognised internationally, including the ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award in 2025. His recent work has appeared on the cover of Nature, including research on the Fair Human-Centric Image Benchmark and Ace, a robotic system capable of competing against elite table tennis players.

Address:The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, United States