Race against the superhuman GT Sophy in Gran Turismo
Are you looking for a real challenge? Then try to win against the superhumanly good AI GT Sophy in the game Gran Turismo.
Garry Kasparov, Lee Sedol, you. As a top gamer, do you want to join this list of illustrious greats in their valiant fight against the inevitable robot apocalypse? Then now is your chance.
GT Sophy trained to become a top racer in two weeks
Artificial intelligence is also advancing in the gaming world, and in the racing game Gran Turismo, a well-known frustration among players is that the AIs in the game are too easy to beat. Sony took these complaints seriously and the development team started building. The result was GT Sophy.
This AI was trained on 20 PS5 consoles in two weeks until it became an unbeatable champion, non-stop. Each PlayStation ran a different incarnation of the AI, battling each other on the racetrack until they honed each other into a winning machine.
In a small-scale test, Sony pitted GT Sophy against the best Gran Turismo esports players in the world. This one bites the dust.
Reinforcement learning
GT Sophy is trained on a different principle than well-known AIs such as ChatGPT and Dall-E. Through reinforcement learning (learning by reinforcing desired outcomes), the AI was brought to the current level in two weeks. When training dogs, the trainer rewards desired behavior with, for example, a biscuit. Broadly speaking, reinforcement learning works the same way. Only then is the cookie an algorithmic stimulus. In this case: winning the race.
Quick learner
After a day of frantic racing, the AI was able to beat 95 percent of all human players. It took a little longer to surpass the level of the best human Gran Turismo players, around ten to twelve days. Yet it is still possible to beat even Sophy AI. At least one case is known where a player drove GT Sophy out. So maybe all is not lost yet…
