During a Q&A session following the release of its latest financial results, Sony and PlayStation’s top brass have outlined plans for the use of AI technology within the business.
It seems that the through-line guiding the company’s approach is that AI should serve as a tool to aid creators and make certain processes more efficient, rather than replacing staff.
“Human creativity must remain at the centre,” says Sony president and CEO, Hiroki Totoki. “AI is a powerful tool, but is not a replacement for artists or creators. It is an amplifier of human imagination and catalyst for new possibilities.”
In terms of PlayStation, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Hideaki Nishino says its first-party teams have already been using AI solutions to make development more efficient.
“Within our studios, game developers are automating repetitive workloads, improving software engineering productivity, and accelerating areas like quality assurance, 3D modeling, and animations through new AI power tools,” he says.
Nishino gives the example of something called Mockingbird, a proprietary tool that uses machine learning to animate 3D facial models based on performance capture, a task that would otherwise take hours of work.
Studios like Naughty Dog and San Diego Studio have adopted this tech, and it’s already been put to use in released games such as Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, he says.
Nishino says animating hair is another area where AI/machine learning significantly eases workload.
“Our teams have accelerated this process by taking videos of real hairstyles and having an AI tool output a 3D model, with hundreds of strand models,” he says. “These practical applications allow our teams to spend less time on manual, high effort tasks, and to instead reinvest their time into building richer worlds and gameplay for our players.”
He also points to Gran Turismo 7’s AI driver, Sophy, as an example of how the tech can lead to “new types of experiences for fans.”
