Gran Turismo Sophy, aka GT Sophy, is a potentially revolutionary artificial intelligence by Sony AI within Gran Turismo 7. Outside of online racing, GT Sophy should provide your sternest rivals this year. Let’s dive into the details.
What is Gran Turismo Sophy?
Gran Turismo Sophy is an artificial intelligence agent for the Gran Turismo games, designed to deliver close, fair and exciting racing by the use of reinforcement learning.
What is reinforcement learning?
Reinforcement learning is a way of training an AI through a machine learning technique that rewards positive behaviour or punishes undesired behaviour.
So GT Sophy is more than an advanced AI rival?
Yes, while GT Sophy does race you as an opponent – in simple ways like any other AI in any other racing game – it’s more advanced because it’s designed to race you in a naturalistic fashion. Depending on your skill level, it will attack and/or defend, and has the ability to defend.
But, it’s also learning and improving, step by step. The project started out in GT Sport, before progressing to Gran Turismo 7 and has been tested several times against the world’s best Gran Turismo World Series drivers.
What are the GT Sophy emojis?
As yes, these are GT Sophy emoticons, displayed above the roof of every AI-powered rival. These are a visual representation of what ‘Sophy’ is thinking at any given moment, and also a sign of its reinforcement learning.
Crash into or overtake them, and they’ll likely be sad, but if they overtake you, they’ll be happy. You will also hear an audible chime should their emotion change. Sweet.
Is GT Sophy quick?
Yes, very. In fact, it can be quicker over one lap than any human, in theory. But, where’s the fun in that? The key to Sophy is that it has the racecraft, or is being developed to learn the racecraft, akin to a real-world competitor.
Can you race against GT Sophy in Gran Turismo 7?
Yes, starting 21st February 2023 through the free Update 1.29, a ‘Race Together’ series of challenges will pit you against GT Sophy
When are the GT Sophy Race Together challenges available?
The first public test of GT Sophy, Race Together, is available within Gran Turismo 7 from the 21st February 2023, but only for a limited time. It is set to disappear on 31st March 2023.
Can you race GT Sophy on PlayStation 4?
No, GT Sophy within Gran Turismo 7 is only available for PS5 owners, not PS4 players. This is likely because GT Sophy is more resource intensive than the regular AI-controlled rivals.
How many GT Sophy AI agents can you race against?
There is a maximum of four GT Sophy AI agents within Gran Turismo 7‘s Race Together test events. This is far fewer than the 20-strong grid against ‘regular’ AI opponents.
This is also likely because GT Sophy is more resource intensive than the regular AI-controlled rivals.
Who created GT Sophy?
Gran Turismo Sophy was led by Sony AI, a separate division to game development within the Japanese corporation. But, it was in collaboration with Gran Turismo 7 developers Polyphony Digital and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE).
How many GT Sophy Race Together events are there?
In this limited-time test, where GT Sophy feedback will be gathered, there are four events at four different tracks with Beginner, Intermediate and Expert difficulty levels.
Players can also challenge GT Sophy in 1v1 mode in identical cars.
The four events are at:
- Race 1 – Tsukuba Circuit
- Race 2 – Alsace Village
- Race 3 – Trial Mountain Circuit
- Race 4 – Suzuka Circuit
Each difficulty level has a different tune of vehicle and a different payout. The 1v1 races carry no prize.
Race 1 – Tsukuba Circuit
- Beginner – Honda Integra Type R (DC2) ’98 – 594.76 PP – 10,000 credits
- Intermediate – Honda Integra Type R (DC2) ’98 – 522.13 PP – 15,000 credits
- Expert – Honda Integra Type R (DC2) ’98 – 490.94 PP – 25,000 credits
Race 2 – Alsace Village
- Beginner – Nissan R32 GT-R V-spec II ’94 – 656.61 PP – 20,000 credits
- Intermediate – Nissan R32 GT-R V-spec II ’94 – 555.11 PP – 30,000 credits
- Expert – Nissan R32 GT-R V-spec II ’94 – 542.68 PP – 45,000 credits
Race 3 – Trial Mountain
- Beginner – Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3 Road Car – 661.18 PP – 25,000 credits
- Intermediate – Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3 Road Car – 638.50 PP – 35,000 credits
- Expert – Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3 Road Car – 617.91 PP – 50,000 credits
Race 4 – Suzuka Circuit
- Beginner – Mercedes-AMG GT3 Gr.3 ’16 – 738.60 PP – 30,000 credits
- Intermediate – Toyota Supra GT500 ’97 – 727.90 PP – 45,000 credits
- Expert – Lamborghini Huracán Gr.4 – 673.07 PP – 70,000 credits
Tell me about the 1v1 races
Four 1v1 challenges exist in the first Race Together test, one for each track: Tsukuba Circuit, Alsace Village, Trial Mountain Circuit and Suzuka Circuit.
As the name implies, you’re simply competing in a short race against one Sophy Ai-powered rival, but the twist is that its ability has been ramped up. A lot. These are tough challenges, which turn out to be quite humbling for anyone who thinks they’re pretty good at Gran Turismo 7. Fair warning.
If you’ve found the Expert four-AI races a breeze, step it up and try a 1v1.
Will there be further GT Sophy tests?
Yes, Race Together is just the first in a series of in-game GT Sophy tests and challenges.
“From the beginning, Gran Turismo Sophy was always about more than just being superhuman; we aspired to create an AI agent that would enhance the experience of players of all levels, and to make this experience available to everyone,” said Michael Spranger, Chief Operating Officer, Sony AI.
“We have now accomplished this with GT Sophy ‘Race Together’ mode.
“This signifies a major milestone for our organization and our mission to unleash human imagination and creativity with AI. We look forward to continuing our work on GT Sophy and other gaming AI projects in the future.”
