Sony Group Corp. said Wednesday it has developed an artificial-intelligence driver for its Gran Turismo Sport auto racing game, paving the way for the AI agent to be incorporated into future releases of the popular series.

The AI driver, dubbed "Gran Turismo Sophy" or "GT Sophy," is an autonomous agent capable of learning various racing skills such as effective passing, defensive maneuvers and avoiding crashes while observing race etiquette during competition.

Gran Turismo 7, the latest installment of the long-running series, is slated for release in March in Japan and elsewhere. The Japanese electronics giant is expected to introduce the AI driver in a future update of GT7.

The AI driver, jointly developed by Sony AI Inc., Polyphony Digital Inc. and Sony Interactive Entertainment, was trained to master driving skills needed to compete with the world's championship-level drivers, according to Sony Group.

GT Sophy has beat the best human players of the game in both time-trial races and in a competition format used in Gran Turismo Championships e-sports events.

"Gran Turismo Sophy is a significant development in AI whose purpose is not simply to be better than human players, but to offer players a stimulating opponent that can accelerate and elevate the players' techniques and creativity to the next level," Sony AI CEO Hiroaki Kitano said in a press release.

==Kyodo

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