Sony’s Ace Robot, “Machined to Think” and India’s IR4.0 Moment

 

Sony’s Ace Robot, “Machined to Think” and India’s IR4.0 Moment:

Time to Embrace AI with Policy Vision.

The news of Sony AI's Zürich team, led by Peter Dürr, publishing their research paper in Nature (22^nd April 2026) under the title “Outplaying elite table tennis players with an autonomous robot” has hogged global headlines, including in Free Press Journal, which featured it on front page in its Sunday edition, 26 April. Sony’s Table Tennis playing Robot, called the Ace, is the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport, “one that requires rapid ‌decisions and precision execution by employing high-speed perception, AI-based control and a state-of-the-art robotic system”.

In official matches judged by the Japanese Table Tennis Association, Ace won three out of five matches against top university players and held its own against professionals. Experts call it a “ChatGPT moment” for physical AI - the moment machines entered the realm of split-second reflexes and high-precision interaction, once thought uniquely human.

Ace robot’s breakthrough, coming just after Dr. T.B. Yuvaraja, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, performing the remote surgery from India (7April 2026), while the patient was stationed hundreds of miles away, reminds me of an exhibition “Machined to Think” at Mumbai’s Nehru Science Centre (NSC), an exhibition which we opened in May, 2018. The surgery performed by Dr Yuvaraja was India’s first-ever cross-border remote robotic surgery, which resulted in the successful robotic kidney removal on a 55-year-old patient in Muscat, Oman, diagnosed with cancer. 

At the Nehru Science Centre, the Machined to Think exhibition which we had developed presented robots, AI, and automation not as distant science fiction but as evolving realities that would augment human capability. Today, I see a sense of nostalgia when we see Ace robot and remote robotic surgery making news. 

The NSC exhibition, inaugurated by Dr Anil Kakodkar on 9 May 2018, included aspects of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) - Internet of Things, 3d printing, digital world, robotics, virtual reality, synthetic biology etc. It featured immersive experiences: visitors transported via Virtual Reality to the Antarctic among polar bears and penguins, brainwave-controlled drones, robots, augmented reality, and more. These were early windows into disruptive technologies that Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum popularised as the Fourth Industrial Revolution – IR4.0

India which missed the first three Industrial Revolutions can ill afford to miss the IR4.0. As a science communicator, I have long argued that we must not shy away from technological change but embrace it responsibly harvesting its societal benefits. Indian history offers powerful proof. In the 1970s and 80s, the introduction of computers in banks faced fierce resistance; unions feared job losses and observed “anti-computerisation” periods. Today, the same banking community would strike if anyone tried to remove computerised systems. Digital banking, ATMs, and UPI have transformed finance into an efficient, inclusive service.

The JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar, and Mobile) provides an even stronger recent example. Powered by this digital infrastructure, Direct Benefit Transfer has transformed social deliveries - plugging leakages, eliminating ghost accounts, and removing intermediaries - benefiting hundreds of millions, especially women and rural households, proving technology can be a great enabler when deployed thoughtfully.

Sony’s Ace signals a deeper shift: AI is now conquering high-precision, reflex-driven domains — manufacturing, logistics, healthcare assistance, and precision services. This augurs well for India which has a significant exposure particularly in IT and IT enabled services including skilled AI talent whose demand is growing rapidly in hubs like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and many other cities across India. India must prepare itself in proactively embracing this new norm of AI.

The world has seen technological disruptions before. Sony itself revolutionised personal music with the Walkman, only to be disrupted by Apple’s iPod. Nokia and Motorola dominated mobiles until the iPhone redefined the industry. Kodak invented the digital camera yet clung to film rolls and printed photos, filing for bankruptcy in 2012. The lesson is clear: technologies we create can disrupt the industries that birthed them. Resistance leads to irrelevance.

In 2003, while publishing an article on BT Cotton: Prospects and Concerns, I quoted Prince Charles’s reservations on BT technology alongside a paraphrase from Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels: science and technology deserve support when they help “grow two kernels of corn or two blades of grass where only one grew before.” This spirit should guide our approach to AI - judging it by its capacity to multiply productivity in healthcare, agriculture, education, and climate solutions.

India, with nearly 60 per cent of its population in rural areas dependent on agriculture, stands to gain immensely from IR4.0, which offers opportunities for accelerated productivity, better service delivery, and human-machine collaboration, provided we prepare.

The path forward demands proactive policy leadership. India’s planners and government must immediately recognise that AI will permeate every field. A robust national response is essential, including a comprehensive AI legislation framework that balances innovation with safeguards on data privacy, algorithmic bias, accountability, deepfakes, and misuse. India would need a National Skilling and Reskilling Mission, which can scale up training programmes to equip the workforce with AI-complementary skills - creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and AI oversight - while providing targeted transition support for vulnerable segments.

Simultaneously, we will need sector-specific guidelines and institutions that can strengthen bodies like an AI Safety Institute and sector regulators for healthcare, manufacturing, education, and agriculture to set ethical standards and monitor high-risk applications. We will need governance with principles of transparency, fairness, and public welfare so that AI and its applications augment rather than displace human potential, especially in employment-intensive sectors.

In conclusion, technology is not to be feared but harnessed for the welfare of people. Policymakers must act decisively - frame forward-looking regulations, investing in human capital, and fostering responsible innovation - so that India leads rather than reacts. Those who shy away risk the Kodak fate. Let us instead choose to grow more “blades of grass,” creating an ecosystem where “machined to think” technologies serve society, jobs evolve, and every citizen thrives.

Images : Courtesy Nehru Science Centre, Wikipaedia, Kokilaben Ambani Hospital and Sony