■ Sense the Wonder

The first "Sense the Wonder Day," an online event for all Sony Semiconductor Solutions (SSS) Group employees, was held on January 25th. Through this event, Terushi Shimizu, President and CEO of SSS, alongside SSS Group employees from around the world, introduced various initiatives being implemented within each SSS business to participants, including business partners, students, and members of the press. I also shared a video message.

The SSS Group's new corporate slogan, "Sense the Wonder" includes "Sense" as capturing awareness of people and "Wonder" as being considerate of curiosity which is born from people.

From its origins as a provider of key devices for Sony products, SSS progressively expanded its customer base, contributing to the evolution and proliferation of smartphones around the world through its outstanding imaging technology. For the SSS Group to continue to provide Kando to the world with No.1 technology, it is essential to grasp the needs of the world and seize new business opportunities, such as automotive image sensors and edge AI.

Intelligent vision sensor that received an Award for Excellence
at the "2021 Nikkei Superior Products and Services Awards."
The core technology of the new edge AI sensing platform "AITRIOS."

Within these new fields, I expect the scope for joint creation with our business partners to also increase. Starting new businesses is never easy, but I look forward to SSS continuing to take on challenges together with our Sony Group companies and various stakeholders through an approach based on "getting closer to people," including their feelings of "Sense" and "Wonder."

■ Gran Turismo Sophy

On February 10, Sony AI announced the launch of a unique new game AI agent, Gran Turismo Sophy™ (GT Sophy). GT Sophy is an autonomous AI agent trained in the real driving simulator "Gran Turismo™ Sport" for PlayStation®4, using deep reinforcement learning techniques and an asynchronous distributed learning platform developed by Sony AI. Through this process, Sony AI, in collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and Polyphony Digital (PDI), a game development studio and subsidiary of SIE, has created a superhuman AI agent that can compete on the same level as the world's top Gran Turismo drivers. This initiative featured on the cover of the February 10 issue of the scientific journal Nature, which published a paper titled "Outracing champion Gran Turismo drivers with deep reinforcement learning."

GT Sophy was developed with the goal of bringing a new AI-based gaming experience to players around the world. It is thanks to the strong collaboration among Sony Group companies that, based around the concept of getting closer to gamers, we could create this unique game AI that further enhances the enjoyment of GT fans. I also have high expectations for the future potential of SIE's cloud gaming infrastructure, which was used to carry out this AI training on such a massive scale.

Test-driving AI feature that enables it to coordinate with and drive alongside the player.

With members of the Sony AI Tokyo office in December 2021.
GT Sophy was developed by a global team spanning North America, Europe and Japan.

■ "Uncharted"

Finally, our new movie "Uncharted," which has been opening in markets around the world since last weekend, will be released today (February 18) in the US and Japan. As I touched on at this month's Group Quarterly Meeting, this title is the latest example of our efforts to enhance the value of content generated by creators, leveraging the diversity of the Sony Group. Through this release, we aim to bring to movie audiences the enthralling world of adventure that fans of the game have enjoyed until now, and deliver new Kando.

As always, I look forward to receiving your feedback.