Gran Turismo Sophy, the first superhuman AI agent in the service of entertainment

Revolution in the field of artificial intelligence.

Developed by Sony AI in partnership with Polyphony Digital and Sony Interactive Entertainment, Gran Turismo Sophy aims to provide gamers around the world with new AI-powered gaming experiences. Trained with a new deep reinforcement learning platform (no combination of algorithms and infrastructure can do the job), this first AI superhuman agent outperforms the world’s best pilots in Gran Turismo.

• Racing Car Control – A detailed understanding of car dynamics, trajectories and precise maneuvers to overcome difficult tracks.
• Racing tactics – the ability to make quick decisions in order to adapt to rapidly changing racing situations. The GT Sophy showed proficiency in tactics such as slipstream overtaking, cross overtaking and even some defensive maneuvers such as blocking.
• Racing etiquette. To be a model of fair play, the GT Sophy had to adhere to very subtle but vague rules of sportsmanship, such as avoiding faulty collisions and respecting opponents’ trajectories.

“Gran Turismo Sophy marks a milestone in the development of artificial intelligence, the goal of which is not only to be better than human players, but also to offer them a difficult opponent that can speed up and transfer moves, as well as increase the creativity of the gamer,” said Hiroaki Kitano., CEO of Sony AI. “In addition to contributing to the development of the gaming community, we believe that this promotion has great promise for areas such as autonomous racing, autonomous driving, high-speed robotics and control.”

Kazunori Yamauchi, President of Polyphony Digital, adds: “AI research provides us with a good opportunity to really think about what it means to be human and how technology and society can better coexist. Since its first release in 1997, the Gran Turismo franchise has continued to push the boundaries of gaming and innovation driven by its technological curiosity. Gran Turismo Sophy is another demonstration of this philosophy and I am confident that this AI concept will contribute to the future of games and cars.”

Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, continues: “Our goal is to fill the world with emotion through creativity and technology, and Gran Turismo Sophy is the perfect emblem. This group collaboration, in which we created gaming AI for gamers, is truly unique to Sony as a creative entertainment company. It marks a giant leap in the development of artificial intelligence, providing an enhanced experience for GT fans around the world. ”

Artificial intelligence for driving with Gran Turismo Sophy

Gran Turismo Sophy combines a background in AI fundamental research and development, a hyper-realistic racing simulation, and infrastructure for large-scale AI training. It will be integrated into Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 and PS4 when it launches next March via a free update.

Sony AI tested GT Sophy’s capabilities by racing against four of the world’s best Gran Turismo drivers in two Race Together 2021 Challenges on July 2, 2021 and October 21, 2021. Using the lessons learned from the first race to improve, GT Sophy beat top GT drivers in both time trials and the FIA ​​certified Gran Turismo Championships race at the second round in October.