AI is no longer just a topic in the technology circle, but has officially become the most sensitive and difficult to avoid core issue in the entire gaming industry. Sony is now no longer just watching, but directly making its attitude clearer.
Sony Group President and CEO Totoki Hiroki recently stated in a financial report meeting on May 8 that artificial intelligence will greatly assist PlayStation game development in the future, and may even make projects that could not be established in the past due to cost, scale, and technical limitations truly come true. However, he also emphasized that AI should not replace creators, but should serve as a tool to support creation.
This statement also means that Sony has officially regarded AI as one of the important directions for the future development of PlayStation.
Sony believes that AI is a tool to “amplify the capabilities of creators”
In the financial statement, Toki Hiroki described AI as a “powerful tool” but not a substitute for artists and creators. He believes that the greatest value of AI lies in its ability to expand the original abilities and imagination of creators and assist development teams in completing content that was previously impossible.
Unlike some companies that focus on high-profile AI-generated content, Sony has a relatively conservative attitude this time. At least officially, it still maintains a “human creator-led” stance.
After all, as long as players see the word AI now, their reaction is sometimes almost the same as that of NFT back then.
Sony doesn’t just look at efficiency, but at “scale”
Toki Hiroki also mentioned that the value of AI is not just about improving development efficiency.
He believes that the greatest potential of AI is to enable works to operate on a scale that was difficult to achieve in the past, and even make certain large-scale projects feasible that would have been impossible to establish.
In other words, Sony is now focusing not only on “labor saving”, but also hopes that AI will become a part of large-scale content production in the future.
PlayStation executives also confirmed that AI will continue to be introduced
In the same financial report conference, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino also talked about the positioning of AI in the PlayStation ecosystem.
He also described AI as a “powerful tool” and said that Sony will continue to use AI to strengthen the PlayStation platform and development environment in the future, so that both players and developers can get a better experience.
Although the official has not yet disclosed the specific application methods, Sony has actually continued to lay out related technologies in the past.
Sony has been researching PlayStation AI for nearly 10 years
According to reports, Sony has continued to invest in PlayStation AI technology research for the past ten years, during which it also expanded its capabilities through the acquisition of different AI and machine learning companies.
Among them, Sony just completed the acquisition of British AI company Cinemersive Labs in April this year. The company mainly studies how to convert images into 3D media formats suitable for AR and VR, and has been integrated into Sony Visual Computing Group.
This also shows that Sony has not just started to touch AI recently, but has been quietly preparing for many years.
AI shadows are also beginning to appear in the direction of PS6
In addition to the topic of AI, Toki Hiroki was also asked about the development status of PS6 during the meeting.
He said that Sony is still actively investing in PS6 development, but the launch time and price have not yet been decided. He also mentioned that memory supply and cost are still important factors that need to be observed in the current industry.
The report also pointed out that PS6 is likely to further introduce AI-assisted technologies in the future, including AI screen upscaling and image reconstruction.