The result of a collaboration between Sony IA and the Gran Turismo teams, the IA GT Sophy gives a hard time to the best pilots in the world.
In collaboration with the developer of Gran Turismo, Sony AI has just given birth to Sophy. This artificial intelligence promises to “to revolutionize” racing video games. After years of development, Gran Turismo Sophy presents itself as the first AI agent capable of overtaking the best drivers in the world in Gran Turismo Sport. This is the first major project of Sony AI, a research and development unit created in April 2020 with the aim of “unleash human imagination and creativity through AI”.
She trained GT Sophy using a deep reinforcement learning platform. For this, Sony AI can count on the support of Polyphony Digital and Sony Interactive Entertainment. The AI has been trained to master several skills; in order to compete with the best human players, while adopting a realistic and natural behavior. Sony explains that it worked on the control of the racing car for a “fine understanding of automotive dynamics, trajectories and precision maneuvers”. With GT Sophy, it’s also about race tactics.
The AI knows how to make decisions quickly and adapt to the vagaries of the race. These can be passing in the wake, crossing or defensive maneuvers such as blocking.
A more realistic and aggressive AI
Thus, Sophy presents a believable behavior and intends to flirt with the limits. However, the objective is not to offer an overly aggressive AI and to propose the right use. Sony indicates that its artificial intelligence is able to avoid collisions or to respect the trajectories of opponents. “Gran Turismo Sophy marks a milestone in the development of AI whose goal is not simply to outperform human players, but also to provide them with a challenging opponent capable of accelerating and passing skills and the creativity of the players at a higher speed »says Hiroaki Kitano, CEO of Sony AI.
This artificial intelligence has already been tested against four of the best Gran Turismo pilots in the world. GT Sophy has outplayed the human riders three times in both time trials and in a race in the Gran Turismo Championships format.
It will be necessary to wait before enjoying it in Gran Turismo 7
Currently, Sony is content to tout the merits of an AI tested in the GT Sport game. It is not planned to offer it at the launch of Gran Turismo 7which arrives next March 4 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Nevertheless, the creator of the series Kazunori Yamauchi plans to integrate it later through an update.
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