Gran Turismo 7 will temporarily get Sophy AI that can beat e-sports drivers

The PlayStation 5 version of Gran Turismo 7 will temporarily include a mode that allows players to race against Sophy. Sophy is an artificial intelligence developed with a neural network that can beat esports drivers while driving according to the same rules as humans.

The Gran Turismo Sophy Race Together mode can be played from February 21 to the end of March and is intended as a ‘first look’ at Sophy. The mode works with four circuits with different levels of difficulty, from beginner to expert. On those four tracks, players race against four different cars driven by Sophy. There’s also a 1v1 mode, where Sophy and the human player race against each other one-on-one using the same car and settings.

Sophy can show emoji while racing, with which the AI ​​responds to how the race is going. To race against Sophy, the user must have reached Collector Level 6 in the game. Developer Polyphony Digital says it can make Sophy better for ‘future releases’ with the temporary mode.

Sony AI and Polyphony Digital announced Sophy a year ago. Unlike most AIs in other racing games, Sophy adheres to the same physics rules as other drivers. For example, in most racing games the AI ​​uses techniques such as rubberbanding, where the AI ​​can suddenly drive faster than is possible for the human player. Sony AI has been working on Sophy since 2020 and has been trained with cloud servers from Sony Interactive Entertainment. In tests with GT Sport e-sports drivers, Sophy managed to win almost all races.

In addition to Sophy mode, PlayStation VR2 support will also be added in the same Gran Turismo 7 update. The racing game also gets five new cars and Grand Valley as a new circuit with the update. Grand Valley was also included in previous Gran Turismo games.