Sony says its studios are already using AI tools for facial animation, hair modeling, and Gran Turismo Sophy

Sony used its latest corporate strategy presentation to lay out how it wants to use AI across the company, including inside PlayStation game development. The broad pitch from leadership was familiar: AI as a production tool, not a replacement for artists or performers.

According to Sony’s corporate strategy presentation, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino said first-party teams including Naughty Dog and San Diego Studio are already using an internal tool called Mockingbird. It generates facial models from performance capture data, and Sony said it was used on Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.

Nishino said the point is to speed up technical work after live performances are captured, not to replace actors. Sony also said its studios are using an AI tool to help with hair animation by turning videos of real hairstyles into 3D models with large numbers of strands, which cuts down on one of the more tedious parts of character work.

On the player-facing side, Sony pointed to a few existing examples rather than announcing anything new. Nishino mentioned Gran Turismo’s AI racing agent Sophy, and also referenced the updated PSSR feature on PS5 Pro, which uses machine learning for image upscaling.

Sony president Hiroki Totoki framed AI as a way to take on projects that might otherwise be too expensive or time-consuming. That’s the company line throughout the presentation: use AI to handle repetitive production tasks, while creative direction stays with human teams.

There’s no game announcement attached to this, and Sony didn’t share much in the way of hard timelines or new consumer features. The main takeaway is that AI use inside PlayStation studios isn’t hypothetical anymore. Sony is talking about it openly now, and tying it directly to current first-party development tools and platform tech.