Sony has unveiled a new "superhuman AI agent" that is designed to race competitively against the best Gran Turismo racers around the world by using physical realism, real-time race tactics and sports etiquette.
Developed by Polyphony Digital and Sony AI, the new artificial intelligence – known as Gran Turismo Sophy – was announced during Sony's Race Together Media Event. Sophy advances through deep reinforcement learning, where it records the speed, positions and environment during a race before then actioning either the throttle, steering or brake via a positive or negative signal sent to the AI.
Two Gran Turismo racing events were held in July 2021 and October 2021, where Sophy faced off against four of the best human GT drivers across three tracks and car combinations. The human racers won the first set of races, however, Sophy learned from the loss and comfortably won in the second set of races - coming first all three times, according to Sony. The AI has specifically been trained via Gran Turismo Sport.
"Gran Turismo Sophy is a significant development in AI whose purpose is not simply to be better than human players, but to offer players a stimulating opponent that can accelerate and elevate the players’ techniques and creativity to the next level," said Sony AI CEO Hiroaki Kitano. He further added that the AI would look to present new opportunities across autonomous racing and driving as well as high-speed robotics and control.
As part of Gran Turismo 7, Sophy will help coach players at driving and also appear as a friend during races. Furthermore, players can teach the AI about "sportspersonship". Gran Turismo Sophy will be made rolled out to GT7 in a future update.
Meanwhile, Sony looks to extend its AI technology to further partners and game studios in the "mid to long-term". A movie going behind the scenes on Gran Turismo Sophy will be uploaded to the official GT website.
Gran Turismo 7 is set to launch across PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on March 4th, 2022.
-
Your Chromebook is getting a major AI upgrade for freeNew features are coming soon to Chromebook and Chromebook Plus
-
HP unveils first device with built-in AI assistant, the OmniBook XWith an increased reliance on AI and remote working conditions, the OmniBook X features a variety of enhanced tools that will significantly optimise its user experience
-
The best AI feature I've seen this week didn't come from Apple IntelligenceThis could be a game changer in the fight against AI bad actors
-
Amazon's paid Alexa service is finally nearing launchAlexa's getting some premium smarts
-
Meta Quest looks set to get AI before the Apple Vision ProNew features are reportedly coming soon
-
Samsung promises not to charge a fee for Galaxy AI... yetSamsung's AI features will remain free until the end of 2025 at the very least
-
Honor debuts AI phone features that could save your eyesight and embarrassmentThese actually sound useful
-
Apple Intelligence won't come to Europe this year – not even on the iPhone 16EU restrictions mean Apple will delay its AI features in Europe
