The first AI agent to beat the world’s best drivers in Gran Turismo

Sony AI, in collaboration with Polyphony Digital Inc and Sony Interactive Entertainment, has announced Gran Turismo Sophy- the first superhuman AI agent to beat the world’s best drivers in Gran Turismo, a realistic racing game available on PlayStation.

Sony’s GT Sophy uses a novel deep reinforcement learning platform developed in collaboration with PDI and SIE.

Skills

1. Race Car Control: Deep understanding of car dynamics, racing lines, and precision maneuvers to conquer challenging tracks.
2. Racing Tactics: Split-second decision-making skills in response to rapidly evolving racing situations. GT Sophy showed mastery of tactics including slipstream passing, crossover passes and even some defensive maneuvers such as blocking.
3. Racing Etiquette: Essential for fair play, GT Sophy had to conform to highly refined, but imprecisely specified, sportsmanship rules including avoiding at-fault collisions and respecting opponent driving lines.

"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. In addition to making contributions to the gaming community, we believe this breakthrough presents new opportunities in areas such as autonomous racing, autonomous driving, high-speed robotics and control,” said Hiroaki Kitano, CEO of Sony AI.

GT Sophy’s capabilities were tested by racing against four of the world’s best Gran Turismo drivers in two Race Together 2021 Challenge events. GT Sophy outperformed the best human GT drivers in both time trial races and an FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships format race.