Generalization to unseen environments is a significant challenge in the field of robotics and control. In this work, we focus on contextual reinforcement learning, where agents act within environments with varying contexts, such as self-driving cars or quadrupedal robots that need to operate in different terrains or weather conditions than they were trained for. We tackle the critical task of generalizing to out-of-distribution (OOD) settings, without access to explicit context information at test time. Recent work has addressed this problem by training a context encoder and a history adaptation module in separate stages. While promising, this two-phase approach is cumbersome to implement and train. We simplify the methodology and introduce SP ARC: single-phase adaptation for robust control. We test SP ARC on varying contexts within the high-fidelity racing simulator Gran Turismo 7 and wind-perturbed MuJoCo environments, and find that it achieves reliable and robust OOD generalization.

When designing reinforcement learning (RL) agents, a designer communicates the desired agent behavior through the definition of reward functions - numerical feedback given to the agent as reward or punishment for its actions. However, mapping desired behaviors to reward functions can be a difficult process, especially in complex environments such as autonomous racing. In this paper, we demonstrate how current foundation models can effectively search over a space of reward functions to produce desirable RL agents for the Gran Turismo 7 racing game, given only text-based instructions. Through a combination of LLM-based reward generation, VLM preference-based evaluation, and human feedback we demonstrate how our system can be used to produce racing agents competitive with GT Sophy, a champion-level RL racing agent, as well as generate novel behaviors, paving the way for practical automated reward design in real world applications.

Nearly two years after its prototype debut and eight months after its public beta, Sony's GT Sophy racing AI for Gran Turismo 7 is back, and going by Gran Turismo Sophy 2.0 now. It will be available to all PlayStation 5 users as part of the GT7 Spec II Update (Patch Update 1.40) being released on Wednesday, November 2 at 2 a.m. We got our first look at the Sophy system back in February 2022. At that point it was already handily beating professional Gran Turismo players. "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 at the time.

The world's leading Gran Turismo 7 players have had their shot at beating Sony's AI racer, GT Sophy, and they lost spectacularly. Now, the bot has added drifting to its move set to rub salt on the wounds, as seen in a video from the Gran Turismo World Series 2023 event. The video clearly shows an AI-controlled vehicle drifting around the track like an absolute maniac. Meanwhile, most people can't pull off successful drifts in Mario Kart, let alone in realistic racers like Gran Turismo. GT Sophy, you can guess what the GT stands for, is the result of more than six years of development between Sony AI and Sony Interactive Entertainment, and utilizes deep reinforcement learning methods.

Sony AI and Polyphony Digital have released Gran Turismo Sophy, a hyper-realistic AI racing agent for Gran Turismo 7. The agent is based on research by Sony's AI researchers and Polyphony Digital's developers and it fits Gran Turismo's mission of being the most realistic racing simulation game. The PlayStation 5 agent was trained on a neural network and moved from a research project to its commercial release after two years of work. It learns the best way to drive through reinforcement training, and then it's ready to take on humans. The aim isn't just to put on a good show, as with many racing games. The mission is to create AI that will challenge and even beat the best human racers. "For the first time, actually, this is a really competitive AI.

You can now test your racing skills against Sony AI's GT Sophy – the one already wiping the floor with folks who get paid to play this professionally – when it arrives in today's update for Gran Turismo 7 on the PlayStation 5 today. Players will face off against four GT Sophy AI opponents, all with vehicles specced slightly differently. There will be a four-circuit series separated by difficulty, too. The GT Sophy races will only be available until the end of March. Meanwhile, an amateur Go player beat a highly-ranked AI system after exploiting a weakness discovered by a second computer.

A solid six percent of Americans think they can out-punch a Grizzly bear, another one in eight men think they can beat 23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams at tennis. On February 21st, this proud internet tradition of being very loud and very wrong about your physical prowess continues! On Tuesday, gamers around the world will get their shot at racing Sony AI's GT Sophy -- the one that's already wiping the floor with folks who get paid to play this game professionally -- when it arrives in the rev1.29 update for Gran Turismo 7 on the Playstation 5. GT7 players will be able to access a special "Gran Turismo Sophy Race Together" mode from February 21st at 1am ET, when the update arrives. Players will face off against four separate GT Sophy AI opponents, all of whom's vehicles are specced slightly differently so you're not going up against a quartet of clones, in a four-circuit series striated by difficulty (beginner-intermediate-expert). "The difference [between racers] is that, it's essentially the power you have versus the other cars on the track," Michael Spranger told Engadget.

Gran Turismo 7,

Last night in a livestreamed broadcast, Sony showed its new video game console, the PlayStation 5, for the first time, along with 28 new games that will be out this year or next. It is a futuristic-looking thing, all white curves and black and blue-LED accents and a touch of mid-00s service robot about it. One version is digital-only, the other comes with a drive for people who prefer to buy games on disc. As cloud-based and Netflix-like subscription services have gained traction in the video game world, the "end of the console" has become a popular conversation point. Two years ago at E3, the yearly video games conference, Microsoft's Phil Spencer told the Guardian that "we pivoted about three or four years ago to thinking about the gamer first, not the device first … Our focus is on bringing console quality games that you see on TV or PC to any device."