Sony AI Wins 2024 AI Breakthrough Award for Innovative Use of AI in Gaming

TOKYO – June 28, 2024 – Sony AI today announced that it has received the “Best Overall Use of AI in Gaming” award in the seventh annual AI Breakthrough Awards program conducted by the market intelligence organization AI Breakthrough. Sony AI was recognized for its innovative use of reinforcement learning in the development of Gran Turismo Sophy (GT Sophy) 2.0, a permanent feature currently found within the Gran Turismo^TM 7 (GT7) for PlayStation 4 and 5^® racing simulation games.

The original version of GT Sophy was designed to compete against top human Gran Turismo (GT) drivers in the PlayStation 4 racing simulation game, Gran Turismo (GT) Sport, and ultimately outraced them. Sony AI trained the breakthrough AI agent using a novel deep reinforcement learning approach it developed called Quantile Regression Soft Actor-Critic, and an infrastructure platform built in collaboration with Polyphony Digital Inc. and Sony Interactive Entertainment. This novel approach enabled Sony AI to ​​conduct mixed-scenario training with GT Sophy to help it learn an integrated control policy combining exceptional speed and impressive tactics. As a result, GT Sophy mastered three driving skills, allowing it to compete with the world’s championship-level drivers: Race Car Control, Racing Tactics, and Racing Etiquette.

Sony AI also refined the AI agent to offer a new and exciting in-game experience for players of all levels and abilities. Using its reinforcement learning approach, Sony AI has trained GT Sophy in different scenarios, cars, and tracks to create GT Sophy 2.0. This game feature, now available to all players on Gran Turismo 7™, gives players a formidable, human-like opponent, enhancing the overall racing experience. The AI agent can drive more than 340 cars on nine different tracks, and supports races that cover 95% of player car models.

The mission of the AI Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work, and success in a range of AI and machine learning-related categories, including Generative AI, Computer Vision, AIOps, Deep Learning, Robotics, Natural Language Processing, industry-specific AI applications and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 5,000 nominations from over 20 different countries throughout the world.

“GT Sophy is a revolutionary AI agent that will forever change how players experience racing games. AI has been integrated into video games for decades, but combining it with reinforcement learning has the potential to be an effective method for improving game AI or NPCs,” said Steve Johansson, Managing Director at AI Breakthrough. “Congratulations to Sony AI as they continue to explore the science, creativity, and ingenuity of AI innovation across the globe. We look forward to future solutions and products that embrace creative expression and entertainment while enhancing human imagination and creativity.”

About Sony AI

Sony AI, a division of Sony Research, was founded as a subsidiary of Sony Group on April 1, 2020, with the mission to "unleash human imagination and creativity with AI." Sony AI aims to combine cutting-edge research and development of artificial intelligence with Sony Group's imaging and sensing technology, robotics technology, and entertainment assets such as movies, music, and games to accelerate Sony’s transformation into an AI-powered company and to create new business opportunities. To achieve this, Sony AI is working across six Flagship Projects that are aimed at the evolution and application of AI technology in the areas of AI for Creators, Gaming and Interactive Agents, Ethics, Scientific Discovery, Imaging and Sensing, and Robotics and Sensing. For more information visit https://ai.sony.com.

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