Keen on new technologies, Sony has always invested heavily in Research & Development and its new subsidiary, Sony AI, has been working for a few years on a new form of artificial intelligence which is now presented in due form. Called Gran Turismo Sophy, this AI which aims to be revolutionary and above all superhuman will not be present at the launch of Gran Turismo 7; but within a month. In the meantime, Sony wants to show us how this program managed to outperform top Gran Turismo Sport drivers such as Emily Jones, Valerio Gallo and Igor Fraga in two Race Together 2021 Challenge events that took place on July 2, 2021. and October 21, 2021. How is this possible? Well, the particularity of GT Sophy is to have a new deep reinforcement learning platform developed in collaboration by Sony AI, PDI and SIE. The program analyzes and can then master all the driving skills to be more efficient than a human being:
1. Race car control: fine-tuned understanding of car dynamics, trajectories and precision maneuvers to conquer the tough circuits.
2. Race Tactics: Ability to make snap decisions to adapt to rapidly changing race situations. GT Sophy demonstrated his mastery of tactics such as slipstream passing, crossover passing and even some defensive maneuvers like blocking.
3. Racing etiquette: to become a model of fair play, GT Sophy had to comply with very refined but vague rules of sportsmanship, such as avoiding collisions by fault and respecting the trajectories of opponents.
With such a degree of skill, GT Sophy will therefore come to compete against players from all over the world in the next Gran Turismo 7. Sony Interactive Entertainment has specified that its integration will be effective in the month after the game’s release, which should then redefine the whole notion of competition when playing solo, against the AI. The idea is not to systematically beat non-professional players, but to offer them this permanent challenge which will allow them to push back their performance, as indicated by Hiroaki Kitano, CEO of Sony AI.
Gran Turismo Sophy marks a milestone in the development of AI whose goal is not simply to be better than human players, but also to offer them a challenging opponent capable of accelerating and passing techniques and players’ creativity at a higher speed.
And to believe the words of professional runners, this GT Sophy gives the impression of not being measured against an artificial intelligence and that it can also serve as a coach, or playmates for the pilots. We can’t wait to test this.