Sony AI’s Peter Wurman Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame

Tokyo, Japan — May 6, 2022 — Peter Wurman, Director, Sony AI America, has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF). During the 2022 National Inventors Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on May 5, 2022, Peter was recognized for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence, specifically the co-development of Kiva Systems’ Mobile Robotic Material Handling for Order Fulfillment.

While at Kiva Systems in the early 2000s, Wurman, Mick Mountz and Raffaello D’Andrea developed an entirely new approach for material handling in distribution centers that revolutionized warehouse order fulfillment. The group leveraged thousands of mobile robots and sophisticated control software to bring inventory shelves to workers, significantly improving all areas of fulfillment center operations from safety and productivity to cycle time and throughput.

“I am humbled by the honor bestowed upon me by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and proud to be recognized alongside my distinguished colleagues Mick and Raffaello for our work at Kiva Systems,” said Wurman. “Throughout my career, I’ve sought to solve tough technology challenges that have an impact on our world as well as develop technologies and systems that enhance and augment actions we take in our daily lives. I hope to continue to make an impact through this work, and am excited to see what the future holds for my fellow inductees, my colleagues at Sony AI, and future inventors and creators.”

Founded in 1973, NIHF is the premier nonprofit organization in America dedicated to recognizing inventors and inventions, promoting creativity, and advancing the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. The organization is committed to honoring the individuals whose inventions have made the world a better place as well as ensuring American ingenuity continues to thrive in the hands of coming generations.

“Innovation drives the worldwide economy forward and improves our quality of life,” said NIHF CEO Michael Oister. “It’s why at the National Inventors Hall of Fame we are privileged to honor our country’s most significant inventors, who are giving the next generation the inspiration to innovate, create, and solve current and future problems.”

Earlier this year, Wurman was the Project Lead on the new AI breakthrough unveiled by Sony AI: Gran Turismo Sophy (GT Sophy), the first superhuman AI agent to outrace the world’s best drivers of the highly realistic PlayStation®4 racing simulation game, Gran Turismo™ (GT) Sport. He is recognized as the First Author in the paper, Outracing Champion Gran Turismo Drivers with Deep Reinforcement Learning, published in Nature in February 2022.

About Sony AI

Sony AI Inc. was founded on April 1, 2020, with the mission to "unleash human imagination and creativity with AI." Sony AI aims to combine cutting edge research and development of artificial intelligence with Sony Group's imaging and sensing technology, robotics technology, and entertainment assets such as movies, music, and games to accelerate Sony’s transformation into an AI powered company and to create new business opportunities. To achieve this, Sony AI has launched four flagship projects to date aimed at the evolution and application of AI technology in the areas of Gaming, Imaging & Sensing, Gastronomy, and AI Ethics. For more information visit https://ai.sony.