AI has managed to get its grubby little robotic fingers on pretty much everything - from super computer work assistants, romantic partners and even bingo.
But, what about AI-powered ping pong ? Now, this might be one of the more obscure uses of the technology, though it's been billed to be an absolute blast.
So, to see if the impending robot takeover can prove somewhat beneficial, I went down to Bounce in London to give it a punt, or a bat, should I say.
Providing a modern makeover to the back -and-forth paddle challenge is the game dubbed 'the future of ping pong' where the ball meets technology - and the bar.
Ping pong is a game that provides perpetual stress. The stress of continually losing the ball, the stress of having to run after it and the stress of having shoddy hand-eye coordination.
Once you get over that, the competitiveness usually wears off after a short while for only boredom to hit. However, Bounce's 'Ping Pong X' AI powered tables made me not want to put the paddles down.
Staff helpfully set me and my mates up to show us the smart ping pong table that you could operate by dropping the ball to select your team and different games.
Quickly, I realised I wasn't in for any bog-standard ball game. There's four games to choose from: Power Up, Classic Ping Pong, Hexapong and King Pong.
Each of the games, and thanks to the AI technology, track your score and keep tabs on the leader board - which can become very humbling for an overly-confident batter (me).
There’s an extensive cocktail list to help build your courage, but also to add another layer of challenge to your hand eye coordination.
I got myself a passionfruit martini topped with a Bounce branded edible topper to get ready for Hexapong - where you have to land the ball in the highest value hexagons and avoid the danger zones.
It's actually a lot harder than it sounds - trust me. But, in an attempt to win against the other team, balls started flying left, right and centre in the AI supercharged game of ping pong.
If you thought the classic game is tense enough, then you don't know what has hit you with this - other than the ping pong ball you're incapable of hitting back across the table (which I was guilty of at the start).
The interactive element added another layer of strategy to the game, which stopped it from being just 'back and forth'. It made it more exciting as the projection-mapping table would automatically change, meaning you couldn't just keep hitting the ball in the same area.
Just by the time I got into the flow of things, the game was over and the table screened the leader board. Not having to mentally keep track of the score was useful, it's impossible to argue with robots after all.
As the evening went on, more rouge balls would end up in your area - fuelled by competitiveness and tipples - with utters of the very British 'sorry' being swapped by players.
'Your ball or mine?' Is this how modern day dating goes now? Perhaps. However, mixing up of balls was not something to worry about as each table is provided with a bucket of balls, with the used balls being picked up by staff with grabbers throughout the evening.
After a fun-filled hour and a half it was finally time to put the paddles down, and for once in my ping-ponging career, I didn't actually want the game to stop.
The choice of games and the AI interactive nature has breathed a new lease of life into what is usually something that get tedious after 10 minutes.
So thank you robots for making ping pong not boring!
While people tend to hibernate after the social onslaught of December, AI ping pong has proved to be a good way to bounce (pardon the pun) the January Blues away. And, as someone who has reported on the habits of our nightlife, the way we hang out with friends is rapidly pulling away from boozy dancefloor get-togethers.
In the age of nostalgia and a new found love of socialisation away from our screens, AI, through the means of ping pong, ironically might save our outside mingling.
It's certainly made it more competitive, that's for sure.
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