Technologies

Sony AI outraces humans in Gran Turismo car racing game

Using a bank of 1,000 PlayStation 4 consoles as a virtual training ground, Sony taught an artificial intelligence system to outplay the best humans.

Over the last two years, Sony AI trained a computer system to play Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo Sport, a popular and realistic car racing game, and beat some of the world’s best human competitors, Sony said on Wednesday.

The AI, named GT Sophy, defeated top humans only in time trials when there were no other cars on the track during a July competition. But by October, GT Sophy beat the humans even with a scrum of virtual race cars.

GT Sophy is the latest experiment demonstrating that AI can be victorious at games such as chess and Go, which were long thought to be the domain of human intelligence. AI has also beaten people at classic Atari video games and the Starcraft real-time strategy game.

AI today generally refers to a process for programming computers using a technology known as neural networks, which mimic the way human brains work. Sony’s achievement is notable enough to warrant a research paper in the prestigious journal Nature.

A car racing video game, like Gran Turismo, presents open-ended tactical choices as well as simulated rules of physics. GT Sophy picked new ways to approach them, one of the human competitors said.

«The AI drives in a way that we would never have come up with,» said Takuma Miyazono, who won three challenges in the FIA Gran Turismo 2020 World Finals, speaking in a video. He said GT Sophy’s tactics made sense when he saw it drive.

Many AI systems are trained with real-world data through a system called deep learning that gives them the ability to recognize faces and to spot spam. GT Sophy used a different technique called reinforcement learning that starts with an entirely untrained system that has no idea what to do. It raced courses over and over again, following a human-designed reward system that encouraged better results and eventually mastered the game.

One particular difficulty was figuring out the unwritten rules of car racing, such as avoiding collisions and not inappropriately cutting off other drivers.

«We all underestimated how hard it would be to get the sportsmanship side right,» said Sony AI Director Peter Wurman in the video. «To do that without being overly aggressive or overly timid in the face of competitors.»

Sony AI ran simulations on computers connected to a bank of more than 1,000 PlayStation 4 game consoles.

As is common in AI, Sony trained its versions of Sophy GT using fast graphics chips. To run the simulations, it used computers with conventional processors.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 16, #570

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 16 No. 570.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one, especially if you enjoy unusual team names. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Put your glasses on for this.

Green group hint: Hoops home.

Blue group hint: The minors.

Purple group hint: Hidden hoops word.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Look at.

Green group: Seen at an NBA court.

Blue group: Double-A baseball teams.

Purple group: Starts with a WNBA team.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is look at. The four answers are observe, spectate, view and watch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is seen at an NBA court. The four answers are benches, half-court logo, scorer’s table and shot clock.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is double-A baseball teams. The four answers are Biscuits, Drillers, Trash Pandas and Wind Surge.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starts with a WNBA team. The four answers are dreamy, firefly, Skype and sundial.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, April 16

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 16.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s pretty simple, but 1-Across is a bit tricky. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Bow ties and ribbons that you can’t wear?
Answer: PASTA

6A clue: Opposite of lower
Answer: UPPER

7A clue: Flappable origami creation
Answer: CRANE

8A clue: Where the Hangul alphabet is used
Answer: KOREA

9A clue: Apparatus under a trapeze
Answer: NET

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Disc dropped on center ice
Answer: PUCK

2D clue: One might read «Kiss the Chef»
Answer: APRON

3D clue: Unlikely outcome after a 7-10 split
Answer: SPARE

4D clue: Fundamental belief
Answer: TENET

5D clue: Bay ___ (part of California)
Answer: AREA

Technologies

Apple Reportedly Plans to Send Siri Engineers to AI Coding Bootcamp

The move comes just weeks before the company is expected to unveil a new Siri.

Apple plans to send dozens of Siri engineers to a multiweek AI coding bootcamp, The Information reported Wednesday. The move comes less than two months before the company is widely expected to unveil a new Siri experience as part of a broader AI reboot.

A group of fewer than 200 engineers will be sent to the bootcamp, leaving approximately 60 members of the core Siri development team behind to continue working on Siri, while another 60 will evaluate Siri’s performance, according to The Information. The outlet also reported that AI has grown in popularity in some Apple divisions, prompting some teams within the company to allocate large parts of their budgets to Claude Code.

Apple representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Siri, once a pioneer, has lagged behind its rivals in voice assistants. Apple had planned to roll out a smarter, AI-driven Siri in 2025 as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative, but executives delayed the launch until spring 2026, admitting the early version wasn’t reliable enough to ship.

For Apple, the move would mark another attempt to reset expectations around its AI strategy after repeated delays to its more advanced Siri ambitions. The news also comes as John Giannandrea, Apple’s former AI chief, is reportedly leaving the company this week after stepping down from that role in December.

The new Siri experience is expected to be introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 and would arrive as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and MacOS 27 later this year, according to a Bloomberg report in March. The report says Apple is testing out a new Siri that would make the assistant feel more like a standalone AI chatbot — think ChatGPT or Claude — rather than the current built-in tool.