GT7 Improved AI teased, conference to follow on Febuary 9

[JayOTT]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1490717497867530241

This is a big deal if it means what I think it means. AI has long been the weak point of the Gran Turismo series, with only minor improvements in Sport that weren't enough to seriously challenge most players. PD has often attempted to mask the issue by having the player start well behind the lead car in races, but this only turned such races into glorified time trials, nicknamed "catch the rabbit" races.

Whilst some news outlets are tempering expectations regarding this announcement, Kazunori Yamauchi himself has been quoted as promising an AI improvement for GT7, and it seems odd to me that a project like this, combined with a study from last year, wouldn't be used to help GT catch up to the standard that other modern franchises have set in the CPU racing department.

 

[JayOTT]

They have created an AI capable of hotlapping and racing at an elite e-sports level and are naming it Sophy;

Gran Turismo Sophy

Gran Turismo Sophy's website. GT Sophy is a revolutionary superhuman racing AI agent that has been featured on the cover of the world's leading science journal, Nature. Project overview, innovative AI technologies, race movies.

www.gran-turismo.com

The only question mark now is how well they can integrate it into GT7's singple player experience. It would be a waste if they didn't put this to good use.

 

[MJQT]

Cheers for mentioning this! Had no idea this existed, but effort to improve AI is always super exciting to see for me, as a single-player racer. For any of the more scientifically minded among you, here's a link to the paper outlining their approach in Nature:

Outracing champion Gran Turismo drivers with deep reinforcement learning - Nature

Using the game Gran Turismo, an agent was trained with a combination of deep reinforcement learning algorithms and specialized training scenarios, demonstrating success against championship-level human racers.

www.nature.com

 

[Patrik Marek]

hard to tell how it's going to go, Forza also claimed that the AI is learning from players playing the game, and I don't really thing that was true , or at least it didnt' really make too much difference

my big worry, if you get properly hardcore AI and always start mid pack, you won't be able to win almost anything

 

[JayOTT]

hard to tell how it's going to go, Forza also claimed that the AI is learning from players playing the game, and I don't really thing that was true , or at least it didnt' really make too much difference

my big worry, if you get properly hardcore AI and always start mid pack, you won't be able to win almost anything

What I like about this project is that they've shown their work by having the AI race and beat the best players, up to and including the current world champion in a time trial. It's a lot easier to start with a fast AI and dial them back (via less aggressive racing lines and/or effective grip reduction), than it is to try and make a slow AI faster without allowing them to cheat.