We begin today with a battle that is no longer science fiction. As we're heading into the era of Artificial Intelligence, myriad positions humans hold might soon be taken over by AI. Yet many people agree that the field of art is among the last fortresses immune from AI's replacement. Yet, the appearance of a robot pianist Teotronico might make us think twice before jumping to that conclusion. Teo can play the piano, produce and play MIDI documents from (piano rolls recorded by past great pianists), such as Ferruccio Dante and Josef Hofmann. On Thursday evening, Teo was in a competition against a human pianist here in Beijing. Take a look! 

The stage at the Beijing Concert Hall was the competing arena. On one side of the ring was Robot pianist Teo, born in Italy in 2012, and the other side was his human counterpart Roberto Prosseda, a 43-year-old Italian pianist and musician.  They were tested on almost every technique of piano playing. Each played works of great masters such as Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Beethoven. Applause from the audience was used as the evaluation standard.  In agility, accuracy, and duration, Teo smashed Prosseda, while in continuity, fortepiano, and expression, Prosseda won over Teo.

Prosseda expressed his belief that machine can never totally replace a human in making music, even though we humans make mistakes.

Teo was designed and manufactured by Mateo Suzi from Italy in 2012. He plays the piano through many dynamically controlled joints. His 53 fingers can move in an extremely fast and exact manner.

SUN WEI, BEIJING "Besides playing the piano and composing music, Teo can talk to and interact with us. He has rich facial expressions, such as movements of head, mouth, eyes and even eyelids and eyebrows. The piano battle is also part of the on-going 'Meet-In- Beijing' Arts Festival.  SW CGTN."