Sony AI showcases latest tech in GT7 demo

Gran Turismo 7 is already one of the best sim racing titles out there, but the next game in the series could see another huge bump in technology. Sony's AI team has recently demonstrated their latest technology advancements with a demo showcasing a ‘super-human racing agent', powered by AI. 

In an article by Traxon.gg, the publication spoke on the latest advancements made by Sony AI, detailing “a new super-human racing agent that can ‘see’ using Gran Turismo 7.”

Going into more specifics, while Sophy AI was able to compete with players more realistically due to it being aware of a race’s precise track shape; tyre slip angle; slip ratio; its wheel load and more,

this new AI on the other hand functions even more like a real human – with the AI driver itself physically seeing out of the front glass panel for the vehicle; just like a real racer/player would.

Speaking on this new evolution, the Senior Research Scientist at Sony AI – Kaushik Subramanian – explained “The fascinating part about this is that we don't have to control what it focuses on. We provide the image, and the AI approach learns what to focus on to get the result we are interested in.”

Subramanian continued, “We tell the AI that its goal is to drive as fast as possible, stay on track and avoid colliding with the barriers. Given some training time, the algorithm learns to focus on relevant parts of the image to satisfy that goal. On a straight section, the AI focuses on what is coming up in the distance. Whereas if it's looking at a corner, the pink marking dots [used to determine its focus] might line up on the edges of the track to help it stay within the course limits.”

The introduction of Sophy AI back in early 2023 was already a pretty big surprise, but it is even more exciting to see Sony continuing to invest in a technology which – while certainly would have other applications – can help make video games more immersive, realistic and hopefully fun.

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KitGuru says: This is an exploratory demo for now but it is showing a lot of promise so far. 

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