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Basketball-Playing Robot Steals the Show During Halftime at the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics men's basketball matchup between the U.S. and France that took place on Sunday, July 25th, was briefly overshadowed by a robot during halftime. The robot, life-like in height, rolled out to treat the audience to some free throws and tricks.
Terrifying life-like robot swished a free throw, a 3-pointer, and a half-court shot duting the haltime at Tokyo Olympics 6 photos
Photo: Tokyo Olympics via Twitter
The basketball-playing robot Cue4The basketball-playing robot Cue4The basketball-playing robot Cue4The basketball-playing robot Cue4The basketball-playing robot Cue4
With the Tokyo Olympics in full swing, basketball fans have been tuning in to watch the progress of the teams. As many of you already know by now, the U.S. lost the Olympic opener to France. The USA Team had an 83-76 loss to France in the preliminary group stage round.

This marks the U.S. first Olympic loss in men's basketball since 2004 when Team USA lost to Argentina. However, their defeat to the underdogs was not the only talk of the town, well, the world in this case. France's spotlight was partially stolen by a 7-foot Japanese animatronic robot that swished a free throw, a 3-pointer, and a half-court shot.

Designed by Toyota, the robot is called Cue. It's an AI basketball-playing robot developed by Toyota volunteers in their spare time that scores 100 out of 100 shots. Cue4, the fourth generation, was presented at the end of 2019 by the development team as a genuine project with a deadline of 2020.

We don't if this version of Cue, which appeared during halftime on Sunday, is still the Cue4, but there are some notable differences in design from the last model. When it was first introduced last year in March, the Cue4 had some chords and a platform that supported it. This time, the robot didn't have any of those.

Using AI algorithms, the remotely-controlled robot threw the ball with striking precision. It took almost as long as NBA champion Giannis Antetokounmpo to shoot. Fans even joked around, saying that the robot's performance even beats the one of Giannis'. You can see for yourselves what Cue is capable of in the videos down below.

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About the author: Florina Spînu
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Florina taught herself how to drive in a Daewoo Tico (a rebadged Suzuki Alto kei car) but her first "real car" was a VW Golf. When she’s not writing about cars, drones or aircraft, Florina likes to read anything related to space exploration and take pictures in the middle of nature.
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