Playing games with a robot that always wins? That doesn’t sound very in-the-wild friendly, or fun.

The researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a robot that always wins at rock-paper-scissors.  Essentially the robot cheats, by detecting the gesture your about to make.

As covered by Tim Maly in Wired:

“It’s the automated equivalent of your jerk friend hesitating a moment before committing to their move — except that it happens at superhuman speed.

R-P-S is a great casual decision-maker. But the game only works if you and your opponent reveal your choices at the same time. Here, the robot perceives and acts faster than the human eye; it’s onto you as soon as your hand begins to form a shape. By the time you’ve landed your move, it’s already countered with the winning one.”

This is a really neat experiment, but I’m still not sure what developers will use it for. I don’t think users in-the-wild will want to play rock-paper-scissors with a robot that cheats.