Ship sunk by Sir Francis Drake in the 16th century found in the Spanish bay of Cadiz

Copyright Antonio García Prats

By Cristian Caraballo

Published on 23/04/2026 - EURONEWS

Researchers have recovered the wreck of the San Giorgio e Sant'Elmo Buonaventura, sunk during the British attack on the port of Cadiz. The wreck preserved food, American dyes and DNA from the crew's illnesses.

A multidisciplinary team of eleven researchers has reconstructed the sinking of an Italian ship that lay barely eight metres deep under the mud of the Bay of Cadi

The ship is the San Giorgio e Sant'Elmo Buonaventura, one of between 30 and 35 ships that the English explorer and privateer Sir Francis Drake destroyed in the port of Cadiz on 29 April 1587, on the express orders of Queen Elizabeth I.

The results of the study (source in Spanish), entitled "Experimental sciences in underwater archaeology: Delta II wreck (San Giorgio and Sant'Elmo Buonaventura)", have been possible thanks to the combination of genomics, dendroarchaeology, palaeobiology, physicochemistry, archaeology and archival techniques.

The thick layer of mud that covered the remains generated an anaerobic environment that preserved the organic material in an exceptional state of conservation.

A 16th century inventory

Among the finds were the skeletal remains of cows, pigs, goats and chickens, as well as the skull of a woman between 25 and 35 years old with an impact to the forehead.

Sealed jars containing olives in brine with capers, bay leaves, rosemary and oregano were also recovered.

Analysis of DNA extracted from inside the jars identified pathogens associated with pneumonia and skin and respiratory infections caused by Staphylococcus, providing new information on the diseases suffered by the crew.

Image of a skull found IAPH

Oaxaca Cochineal in Baltic barrels

One of the most striking discoveries was a series of wooden barrels containing a dense red substance, identified by the University of La Laguna as Dactylopius coccus costa, the insect from which cochineal is extracted.

This dye, from the Mexican region of Oaxaca, was the third most sought-after product in the Americas during the Modern Age. The barrels, made from Baltic wood, were cut between 1586 and 1601, a date that fits precisely with the date of the sinking.

The study was carried out by experts from the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute, the consultancy Tanit Gestión Arqueológica, the CSIC, DendroResearch Wageningen (Netherlands), the Aranzadi Science Society, the University of La Laguna and the Doñana Biological Station.

‘Abandoned fish farms everywhere’: Greek island grapples with debris polluting the Ionian Sea

By Apostolos Staikos

Published on 23/04/2026 - EURONEWS

The Greek island of Ithaca is still facing pollution years after fish farms were abandoned.

At the end of February, a huge, black, plastic object appeared in the Ionian Sea, near the Greek island of Ithaca. It left passers-by and winter swimmers flummoxed – but fishermen and maritime transport professionals knew immediately what it was.

They're no strangers to the remains of fish farms contaminating the seabed. Only in this case, the debris threatened the safety of boats and ships operating in the area. Especially at night, a collision with the large pipe-like object – a cage from an abandoned fish farm – could cause serious harm.

Ithaca - Removal of fish cage Apostolos Staikos

Initially, the cage was located in the sea southeast of Ithaca.

"Many ships pass by the spot, so it is dangerous not only for the safety of the boats but also for people," Veronica Mikos, head of global marine conservation foundation Healthy Seas, tells Euronews.

"I was on board when the captain and crew spotted the 'ring' in the sea. Immediately, they called the coast guard, who towed it to Kaminias beach and, with the assistance of a shore-based vehicle, pulled it ashore."

Ithaca's mayor, Dionysis Stanitsas, then asked the environmental organisation for help.

"We managed to get rid of the fish farms that were abandoned on the island. They were cleaned up by Healthy Seas three or four years ago," Mayor Stanitsas tells Euronews.

"But pieces that came off the fish farms ended up in the sea, where they obstruct navigation. We have frequent occurrences like this, and this time the cage was too big. As a municipality we are not able to transport the tube, the cost is too high. So Healthy Seas' contribution is valuable and necessary."

The debris floated from a fish farm off Greece's mainland

The Healthy Seas team immediately realised that the cage did not belong to either of the island's two former fish farms. In previous years, the organisation's divers collected everything left behind by operators who failed to remove nets and cages from the seabed. According to the head of the NGO, the cage belongs to a fish farm located on the coast of Aetolia-Acarnania, the westernmost region of Central Greece.

After the detachment the owner did not take any action and did not inform any competent authority. After floating for about two months in the Ionian Sea, the huge object ended up in Ithaca.

"The system needs to change," says Mikos. "Laws exist, but they are not enforced as they should be. The owner of the abandoned fish farm should have ensured that nets and cages are removed and cleaned. If not, the competent authorities must take action. It is a question of capacity, money and skills. It is not easy to remove an entire fish farm."

A story with a past

This is not the first time the Ionian island has faced environmental pollution caused by abandoned fish farms. In fact, this is Euronews' third time reporting on the issue in Ithaca. In 2022 and 2024, volunteer divers cleared tonnes of dangerous 'ghost nets' from the Greek coastline. These are nets, iron cages and other objects that remained in the sea after the closure of the island's two fish farms.

The entrepreneurs who closed their businesses did not clear up their farms when they left – and they faced no consequences, despite controls that are supposedly in place.

As the years have passed, the plastic nets have polluted the marine environment and have become a trap for the fish in the area.

The intervention of Healthy Seas was integral. The environmental organisation started its action in the summer of 2021 and six years later continues to clean the seabed and the beaches of the island. Volunteer divers from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Greece, Lebanon, Hungary and the United Kingdom have participated in the efforts.

The building belonging to one of the old fish farms is in a state of decay and continues to pollute the sea right next door. In 2024, pieces of wood, plastic and Styrofoam ended up in the water. In 2026, the roof had deteriorated, with further debris ending up in the sea.

Ithaca - Removal of a fish farm cage Apostolos Staikos

"Honestly, five years ago we were very happy. We thought we had solved a long-standing problem, so it was all over," says Healthy Seas head Veronica Mikos. "But shortly afterwards we started getting calls from all over Greece. There were abandoned fish farms everywhere. Then we realised that this was a phenomenon and not an isolated case. The authorities are cooperating, but they often move slowly and we have a lot of red tape."

The municipality of Ithaca has informed the Region of Ionian Islands and the Ministry of Environment and Energy but no action has been taken yet. Despite proof that the abandoned sites are polluting the environment, the government departments claim that they unable to intervene as it is private property.

Richest countries in 2026: New measure of wealth pushes France and Germany out of top ten

Copyright AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

By Doloresz Katanich

Published on 23/04/2026 - EURONEWS

Measures of “richest countries” can be misleading. A new prosperity index — looking at income, GDP and how wealth translates into quality of life, social cohesion and long-term development — does not place the US, Germany, or France in the top ten.

Europe dominates global wealth rankings, but what it actually means to be a “rich country” depends heavily on how prosperity is measured and who benefits from it.

“Being the richest country in the world is not just about producing a lot,” the analysis from a financial services comparison platform HelloSafe states.

“It is measured by how that wealth concretely translates into the daily life of the ordinary citizen. In 2026, the answer is Norway.”

The group argues that GDP per capita alone can distort comparisons, since it assumes national output is evenly shared across the population.

Ireland illustrates the issue. GDP per capita stands at around $150,000 in purchasing power terms, but much of this is driven by multinationals such as Apple, Google and Pfizer.

The gap between output and household income is estimated at around $70,000 per person.

Related

• A new way to measure poverty shows the US falling behind Europe
• Which European countries will be the richest by 2030?

Addressing these limitations, HelloSafe’s “Prosperity Index” ranks more than 50 countries using a combined score out of 100.

It draws on data from the IMF, World Bank, UNDP, Eurostat and OECD, bringing together income, inequality and wider social indicators into a single measure of prosperity.

On this basis, Europe dominates the top of the ranking, with the five richest countries all located in the region.

Small countries push through

Norway leads the table, supported by the world’s highest GNI (Gross National Income, the total income earned by a country’s people and businesses, including income earned abroad)and a highly balanced social model.

Ireland is second, with high real incomes despite an inflated GDP figure. Luxembourg is third, slipping from the top position for the first time since the index began.

These countries combine strong economic performance with some of the best social indicators globally, according to the report.

Other high performers include Iceland, which ranks fifth, supported by strong human development indicators and low levels of relative poverty.

Singapore, by contrast, scores highly on income but is held back by higher inequality.

Outside of Europe, the United States ranks 17th, reflecting economic strength alongside high inequality and relative poverty.

France sits in 20th place, just behind the Czech Republic, which benefits from one of the most equal income distributions in Europe and a low relative poverty rate.

At the lower end of the European table, countries such as Italy, Spain and Estonia score more modestly, reflecting lower income levels and, in Spain’s case, higher relative poverty.

Beyond Europe, the Seychelles ranks first in Africa, driven by the continent’s highest GDP per capita, strong human development scores and relatively contained inequality. Mauritius and Algeria follow.

In Latin America, Uruguay tops the ranking for the first time, with the region’s highest GNI, lowest poverty and most equal income distribution. Chile and Panama come next.

In Asia, Singapore leads, followed by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The results suggest that while Europe continues to dominate measures of global prosperity, the picture changes significantly once inequality and social outcomes are taken into account. What it means to be "rich," the data suggests, is no longer defined by output alone — but by how widely that wealth is shared.

 

Samsung employees protest and threaten strike, demanding share of profits amid AI boom

Copyright AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

By Pascale Davies & AP

Published on 23/04/2026 - EURONEWS

Record profits but angry workers: thousands of Samsung workers threatening strike over bonus dispute.

Thousands of Samsung Electronics workers protested on Thursday at its chip complex in South Korea, demanding higher bonuses and threatening to strike as the company sees record profits due to artificial intelligence driving up memory chip demand.

Holding signs and waving banners, the workers gathered at a factory compound in Pyeongtaek, amid a heavy police presence, shouting “make compensation transparent and remove maximum limits on bonuses!”

Union representatives put attendance at around 40,000 members, though police did not state an official count.

The protest unfolded the same day that Samsung's main competitor, SK Hynix, reported its best-ever quarterly results — record revenue and operating profit for the first three months of the year, which the company credited to soaring global investment in data centres and AI infrastructure that drove up the demand for its memory chips.

Members of the Samsung Electronics labor union shout slogans during a rally demanding higher bonuses at its computer chip complex in Pyeongtaek, South Korea AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

Samsung, which together with SK Hynix produces about two-thirds of global memory chips, forecast earlier this month that its first-quarter operating profit would reach a record 57.2 trillion won (€33 billion).

Samsung’s union, which represents about 74,000 workers, says the company has failed to offer adequate compensation despite its strong performance. It has rejected the management’s proposal for bonuses of restricted stock and called for removing caps on bonuses.

If talks with management break down, the union has threatened an 18-day strike beginning May 21, estimating it would cost the company over 1 trillion won (€578 million) per day.

“We won’t stop this fight until our fair demands are met,” Choi Seung-ho, a union leader, said through a loudspeaker from atop a crane-mounted structure.

South Korea’s semiconductor makers have benefited from the AI boom but the war in the Middle East has clouded the future outlook, disrupting supplies of key materials such as helium that are crucial to chipmaking and pushing up energy costs.

But in a conference call on Thursday, Woo Hyun Kim, SK Hynix’s chief financial officer, said the company is closely monitoring the conflict but does not expect a meaningful impact on production.

Pentagon Vs. Anthropic: The Battle Over AI In Autonomous Weapons And What It Means For Congress – Analysis

 

April 22, 2026 
By Kelley M. Sayler
Congressional Research Service (CRS).


On February 27, 2026, President Donald J. Trump directed federal agencies to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of [American AI company] Anthropic’s technology.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (who is now using “Secretary of War” as a “secondary title” under Executive Order (E.O.) 14347 dated September 5, 2025) subsequently directed the Department of Defense (DOD, now using “Department of War” as a secondary designation under E.O. 14347) to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk to national security; bar defense contractors, suppliers, and partners from working with Anthropic; and describe an up-to-six-month period of transition away from Anthropic products.

This designation follows a reportedly months-long dispute between DOD and Anthropic over DOD use of Anthropic products, including Claude, the company’s generative AI model. On March 9, Anthropic filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and a petition for reviewin the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging these directives. While the district court issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Anthropic on March 26, the court of appeals denied Anthropic’s motion for a stay on April 8, thus undoing the lower court’s injunction.

Some lawmakers have called for a resolution to the disagreement and for Congress to act to set rules for the department’s use of AI and/or autonomous weapon systems.

 
Background

In July 2025, DOD announced that it had awarded contracts to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI for up to $200 million each “to accelerate Department of Defense (DoD) adoption of advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges.” Although DOD has not publicly outlined the full range of use cases for these companies’ AI models, Anthropic has stated that Claude “is reportedly the Department’s most widely deployed and used frontier AI model.” Anthropic has further statedits models are used “across the Department of War and other national security agencies for mission-critical applications, such as intelligence analysis, modeling and simulation, operational planning, cyber operations, and more.” Although Anthropic’s usage policy prohibits use of its models to incite violence or to develop or design weapons, reports indicate that Claude was used in the January 2026 operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

According to reporting, Anthropic inquired about DOD’s use of Claude, generating concerns within the department that Anthropic might not approve of certain use cases and, therefore, might attempt to limit DOD use of its models. As a result, the Pentagon reportedly requested that Anthropic—and other AI companies—allow use of AI models for “all lawful purposes.” While Anthropic was reportedly “willing to adapt its usage policies for the Pentagon,” the company was, given its assessment of “what today’s technology can safely and reliably do,” unwilling to allow two use cases: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapon systems. In explaining his decision to deny the Pentagon’s request for “full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated that autonomous weapon systems “may prove critical for our national defense. But today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.”

DOD is not publicly known to be using Claude—or any other frontier AI model—within autonomous weapon systems. DOD Directive (DODD) 3000.09, “Autonomy in Weapon Systems,” outlines the approval process for developing and deploying autonomous weapon systems and identifies requirements for their use.

What Are Autonomous Weapon Systems?

DODD 3000.09 defines autonomous weapon systems as “weapon system[s] that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by [a human] operator.” This concept of autonomy is also known as human out of the loop or full autonomy. The directive contrasts such systems with human-supervised, or human on the loop, autonomous weapon systems, in which operators have the ability to monitor and halt a weapon’s target engagement. Another category is semiautonomous, or human in the loop, weapon systems that “only engage individual targets or specific target groups that have been selected by [a human] operator.”

DODD 3000.09 requires all systems, including autonomous weapon systems, be designed to “allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.” Such judgment does not require manual human “control” of the weapon system but rather broader human involvement in decisions about how, when, where, and why the weapon will be employed (i.e., a human must assess the operational environment and decide to deploy the weapon, which can then operate autonomously). This involvement includes a human determination that the weapon will be used “with appropriate care and in accordance with the law of war, applicable treaties, weapon system safety rules, and applicable rules of engagement.” The requirement for “human judgment over the use of force” does not mean that such systems are operating with a human in the loop.

Related Legislation and Issues for Congress

The department updated DODD 3000.09 in January 2023 and later that year, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA; P.L. 118-31). Section 251 requires that the Secretary notify the defense committees of any changes to DODD 3000.09 within 30 days. The Secretary is directed to provide a description of the modification and an explanation of the reasons for the modification. Section 1066 of the FY2025 NDAA (P.L. 118-159) additionally requires the Secretary to submit to the committees, annually through December 31, 2029, a “comprehensive report on the approval and deployment of lethal autonomous weapon systems by the United States” through December 31, 2029. Congress has not legislated on the department’s use of AI models or their reliability; some Members have introduced related legislation (e.g., S. 1394 and H.R. 2894, 118th Congress; S. 4113, 119th Congress).


Should Congress decide that more oversight is needed, it may codify the requirements of DODD 3000.09 or consider additional notification requirements for DOD’s use of autonomous weapon systems or AI models. Congress may also restrict funds for the development and/or use of autonomous weapon systems, or for certain use cases of AI models by DOD, should Congress deem such uses pose an unacceptable level of risk at the current stage of technological development.

About the author: Kelley M. Sayler, Specialist in Advanced Technology and Global Security

Source: This article was published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill for nearly a century.

AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton Calls For Brakes On Runaway AI Development

April 23, 2026 
UN News
By Elma Okic

If AI is “a very fast car with no steering wheel” then regulation must provide one, insists Nobel laureate and Artificial Intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, the visionary scientist widely known as the “godfather” of the self-learning tech.

Speaking at the Digital World Conference (DWC): AI for Social Development – co-organized by the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) – Professor Hinton stressed that rapid advances in AI must be guided more carefully to serve societies – rather than undermine them.

“If you ever went out with a car that had no brake, boy, you are in trouble if you go down a hill,” he told delegates. “But you’re in even more trouble if there’s no steering wheel.”

His remarks came during a busy week for AI policymaking, as governments and UN panels stepped up discussions on governance, inclusion and risk management, amid the growing integration of artificial intelligence across the global economy and society.

The haves and the have-nots

The pace of AI’s growth is staggering. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Technology and Innovation Report 2025, the global AI market is projected to grow from $189 billion in 2023 to $4.8 trillion by 2033, an economy larger than Japan’s, built in a single decade.

Yet the capacity to build and shape it remains in the hands of just a few economies and firms, UNCTAD Acting Secretary‑General Pedro Manuel Moreno warned at the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), also meeting this week.

That concentration risks deepening global inequalities. Doreen Bogdan‑Martin, Secretary‑General of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), pointed out that generative AI adoption in the industrialized ‘Global North’ is growing nearly twice as fast as in the developing ‘Global South’.

“Left unaddressed, this is a second great divergence – widening the gap between countries shaping artificial intelligence and those merely consuming it” – Ms. Bogdan‑Martin said, adding that gaps in infrastructure, investment and capacity cannot be closed by any single country or organization alone.

This week’s flurry of international activity on AI and digital technology in Geneva and beyond, reflects the international push to ensure that all countries can benefit and regulate Artificial Intelligence as it increasingly shapes our economies, societies and daily lives.

Distinct areas of discussion are becoming clear.

While the focus of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development is on global‑level digital policymaking, discussions at the AI For Social Development Conference underscored the need for transparent, accountable and rights‑based AI governance to address risks such as bias, opaque algorithms and having large volumes of data concentrated in the hands of just a privileged few massive corporations.

Participants at the World Conference – convened by UNRISD and international NGO, the World Digital Techology Academy – examined AI’s growing role in social protection, labour markets, education and the green energy transition, while stressing the importance of protecting vulnerable groups and ensuring the benefits of technological change are shared more fairly.

Data-driven approach

Any proposals for AI governance must be data-driven and this is the fundamental work of the UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which convened its first in‑person meeting in Madrid on Wednesday.

Opening the Scientific Panel’s first in‑person meeting in Madrid, co-chair Maria Ressa explained the group’s mandate to provide an independent, scientific and authoritative assessment of how AI systems are shaping societies.

Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and campaigning Philippines journalist, warned that increasingly powerful AI tools are accelerating the undermining of democratic systems using “narrative warfare” in which falsehoods are manufactured and amplified at scale; the weakening of institutions such as the media and courts; and, ultimately, strategic corruption once accountability erodes.

Its findings will inform the discussions of another key UN AI initiative – the UN’s Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance – which meets in July, also in Geneva.A worldwide discussion

The Scientific Panel’s findings which Ms. Ressa co-chairs with renowned Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio will inform the discussions of another key UN AI initiative – the UN’s Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance – which meets in July, also in Geneva.

The Global Dialogue brings together all 193 United Nations Member States, the private sector, civil society, academia and the tech world to share best practices and build common approaches to AI governance.

“The policy conversation will be science and evidence-based, pooled perspectives, scientific perspectives from a multidisciplinary lens from across the world,” says the UN Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, Amandeep Gill.

“This is how policy discussions should be, and the UN is very proud to facilitate this first ever such confluence of science and policy in a fast-paced emerging technology.”

AI Voices Are Easier To Understand Than Human Voices

April 22, 2026 
By Eurasia Review

Synthetic voices are increasingly a part of our lives, from digital assistants like Siri and Alexa to automated telemarketers and answering machines. With the expansion of generative AI, a new type of synthetic voice has been developed: voice clones, which can recreate a facsimile of a person’s voice from only a few seconds of recorded speech.

In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, a pair of researchers from University College London and the University of Roehampton evaluated the intelligibility of humans and voice clones. They found that voice clones are easier than humans to understand in noisy environments.

Voice clones differ from traditional synthetic voices in the amount of sampling they require. Synthetic voices like Siri require a voice actor to spend hours in a recording booth. In contrast, a voice clone can be made from as little as 10 seconds of speech, significantly expanding the number of potential voices as well as the number of potential applications.

Researchers Patti Adank and Han Wang specialize in studying human perception of unclear speech and were fascinated by the idea of machine-replicated speech. A key question they were looking to answer was just how easy voice clones are for the average person to understand. They suspected that voice clones would simply be poor representations of actual human voices and that people would struggle to understand them. What they found could not be more different.

“I thought initially that voice clones would be less intelligible because they were unfamiliar,” said Adank. “I found they were up to 20% more intelligible, which was quite shocking. A small part of our paper is talking about that experiment, and then a large part is me and my collaborator frantically trying to find out what it is that makes those voice clones more intelligible.”

The duo initially presented volunteers with human voices and voice clones, asking them to rate their intelligibility. After finding that voice clones were consistently rated easier to understand, they repeated the experiment with elderly volunteers to determine if being hard-of-hearing alters the effect; with American volunteers — the original cohort was British — to judge if the accent plays a role; and with a filter designed to mimic cochlear implants. In every case, voice clones emerged victorious.

After examining over 100 acoustic measurements, Adank believes the only way to solve the mystery is to work with collaborators who specialize in text-to-speech systems to adapt an existing open-source cloning system.

“I am now going to try and recreate [the effect] by studying how synthesizers work and how they use digital signal processing to generate those voices, just to get a bit of a handle on this,” said Adank.

 

Meet ACE: The AI robot can beat human table tennis pros

By Alexandra Leistner

Published on 23/04/2026 - 

A new robot developed by Sony can now take on top table tennis players, highlighting how quickly artificial intelligence is advancing into complex human skills.

At the start of this week, a robot beat human runners in a half-marathon in Beijing. Now, another one can apparently outplay table tennis professionals. Is this how it begins - machines quietly overtaking us, one task at a time?

The answer is yes - and no. In a new study, a robot built by Japanese electronics giant Sony has beaten professional players. But the features that make this possible are anything but human-like. The robot, called “Ace,” has a single arm with eight joints and uses its nine camera eyes to track the ball’s logo and detect its spin.

How did it get so good?

One thing humans and robot arms have in common is the need for training. Simply programming a robot to play table tennis is not enough, Sony AI researcher Peter Dürr, co-author of the study published Wednesday in Nature, explains. “You have to learn how to play from experience.”

Ace was trained using an AI method known as reinforcement learning. According to Sony, the study shows how advances in artificial intelligence can not only help to make robots faster but also much more agile

Sony set up a full-size Olympic table tennis court at its Tokyo headquarters, where official rules were applied, Dürr said. Several athletes said they were impressed by how good Ace was.

The experiment was conducted on a standard-sized court, and official table tennis rules were applied.

The outcome shows that a machine can achieve human, expert-level play in a common competitive sport, interacting with skilled human athletes, “a longstanding milestone for AI and robotics research”, according to Sony.

The technology behind the speed and agility

The goal wasn’t just speed. Researchers could have built a machine that catches the ball and plays it back faster than a human can react to. But the idea was to build a robot that would actually play the game - and be on as level a playing field as possible, said Michael Spranger, president of Sony AI.

The speed, reach, and performance of the machine are compared to those of a skilled athlete who trains at least 20 hours a week. “The goal is to have some level of comparability, some level of fairness to the human, and win really at the level of AI and the level of decision-making and tactics and, to some extent, skill”, Spranger said.

After submitting their paper for review before it was published in Nature, Sony’s team kept improving the robot. They said Ace became faster, played longer rallies, and moved more aggressively closer to the table. In December, it faced four highly skilled players and beat all but one.

Another professional player, Kinjiro Nakamura, who competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, said he saw Ace make a shot that seemed impossible for a human. But now that the robot has done it, he added, it suggests a human might be able to do it too.

 

Why are there protests over plan to send Frida Kahlo masterpieces to Spain?

Copyright AP Photo

By Abdulla Al Dosari

Published on 23/04/2026 - EURONEWS

Officials are trying to reassure Mexicans that a collection of artworks would return by 2028. Still, critics of the move to Spain remain skeptical.

A national heritage row has erupted between Mexico and Spain over 18 works by Frida Kahlo, which are set to move to Spain. This move follows Spanish bank Santander taking control of 160 out of 300 works by major Mexican artists from the Gelman Collection.

A transfer of the famous Mexican painter’s works to Spain has caused backlash in Mexico’s art world as the move would be against Mexican law, since works designated as being national artistic monuments can’t be permanently exported from Mexico.

Concerns started to grow when Daniel Vega Pérez, director of the Faro Santander museum, said in a statement to Spanish newspaper El País that there was “flexibility” in Mexican legislation that allowed for the easy renewal of exporting licenses. The director even suggested that Frida Kahlo’s artworks could see a permanent spot at the museum.

Nearly 400 Mexican artists, historians, and curators have signed an open letter in which they question the Mexican government over the lack of transparency regarding the move - specifically why Kahlo’s works were allowed for de-facto permanent export while other artists who have the same legal designation of their works are allowed for temporary leasing abroad

The letter demands that the Mexican government clarify its position on the relocation of Kahlo’s artworks and provide open consultation on the future of her works, in order to foster “responsible use of artistic heritage and avoid creating legal loopholes and public uncertainty.”

President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo defended the arrangement, stating that authorities were acting within the law. As for minister of culture Claudia Curiel de Icaza, she stated that the collection “has not been sold and is only temporarily exhibited.” She said: “The collection is Mexican; it wasn’t sold – it’s only leaving temporarily.”

Santander also issued a statement emphasising that the deal “does not imply, under any circumstances, either the acquisition of the collection or its permanent removal from Mexico” and that the works “will return to Mexico at the end of the temporary export period”.

Santander further announced that the Faro Santander opening would be delayed from June to September at the Mexican government’s request.

Critics remain skeptical, however, as the postponement does not resolve the dispute, and reports indicate the Santander agreement runs until 2030 and can be extended by mutual consent.

All 18 artworks by Kahlo are still set to be sent to Spain in September. A return to Mexico is planned in 2028.