There was an interesting sideshow to the main Gran Turismo 7 World Series Nations Cup broadcast recently, as Sony AI and Polyphony Digital’s (PD) collaborative artificial intelligence system – codenamed Gran Turismo Sophy – showcased its abilities.
GT Sophy is a project between Sony AI and PD to help create an AI opponent in-game that organically learns and reacts to its opponents in terms of etiquette, racecraft and strategy. It is hoped the technology can also be applied in future to self-driving cars – possibly a link to Sony’s Vision-S Concept car.
Four GT Sophy AI cars went head-to-head with four of GT7’s leading human proponents – Valerio Gallo, Igor Fraga, Emily Jones and Tomoaki Yamanaka – across two races.
The first race was set at the Sardegna Windmills off-road track, and it proved to be a Sophy whitewash at the front as ‘Sophy Rouge’ and ‘Sophy Violette’ emerged first and second respectively, across four laps of intense action.
The other AI cars came home in sixth and seventh places, offering a small glimmer of hope to the contestants. Last-place finisher Gallo was especially eager to turn things around in the next race…
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