Sony

Armchair speed demons have a new nemesis. Peter Wurman and a team at Sony developed Gran Turismo Sophy (GT Sophy), a reinforcement learning model that defeated human champions of Gran Turismo Sport, a PlayStation game that simulates auto races right down to tire friction and air resistance.

Sony, the consumer-electronics powerhouse behind the PlayStation and other hit gadgets, is launching three research-and-design centers to focus on AI. Staffing up means competing with — and likely poaching talent from — frontrunners like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.