I played ping pong with a robot and lost

If you're still unsure if robots really are taking over, CES 2018 serves as a good reminder that our future is both robot-flled and mildly terrifying.

But if our future really is a robot dystopia, at least there will be ping pong. Industrial robot maker Omron is helping making sure of that, with a massive ping-pong playing robot, called Forpheus.

Not only has Omron successfully trained Forpheus to play ping pong, it's designed it to be a kind of coach. It attempts to match your skill level and will even send encouraging messages if its face recognition detects that you're unhappy or frustrated.

The automated ping pong-playing contraption was on-hand at CES, and I was able to put its skills to the test. Well, sort of. I should preface this with the fact that I am terrible at ping pong. Just awful. And playing with my robot opponent was no exception.

I opted for the robot to serve first. I returned, and it lobbed a perfect hit directly back. I attempted to return the shot but was so wildly off the mark the ball soared straight past my target -- its poor robot arm was no match for my expert lack of hand-eye coordination. You can see my fine form in the clip below (starting at about the 0:45 mark):

Of course, balls fly off the table all the time in ping pong. In these instances, Forpheus is able to grab another ball and serve again. But, this time, the robot remained still. Several seconds went by. The robot's handlers looked slightly concerned. I looked over at the Omron reps who, to their credit, managed not to laugh at me.

"It's... never seen a shot like that before," one of them explained. That's right, my shot was so bad, I momentarily confused the robot's AI.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Luckily, Forpheus soon got back and track and I managed to sustain one only somewhat below-average rally. It was even nice enough to beam a few words of encouragement at me through my near-constant swearing.

I don't think my short match actually improved my ping pong game any, but I could see how it might with enough practice. Better yet, it was only slightly more embarrassing than getting owned by an actual human.