Sony has filed a patent for an AI system that would let its devices, including PlayStation consoles, diagnose and fix software problems on their own. As reported by TweakTown, citing patent aggregator Patentlyze, the filing describes a cloud server that monitors connected hardware, uses a large language model to write a diagnostic program tailored to whatever issue it detects, and then either pushes a fix automatically or logs the issue for an engineer to review later. The patent covers Sony's broader electronics lineup, not just PlayStation, and also names TVs, cameras, and headphones as possible targets.

If something like this ever ships, it could potentially mean fewer support calls and error screens for PlayStation owners down the line. The bigger question is safety, since handing an AI model the ability to write and push its own firmware to millions of consoles sounds risky if the generated code isn't verified. AI models also have a big hallucination problem, which is a huge risk when firmware-level tweaks are being offloaded to AI.

It's worth noting that the filing has already received a rejection from the USPTO examiner, so there's no guarantee it clears the patent office in its current form, let alone becomes a real product. Companies file thousands of patents a year, and most of them go nowhere. Sony, in particular, has a history of odd filings that never made it out, including one for pumping smells into games through a controller and an older patent describing ultrasonic brain stimulation to simulate smell and taste for moviegoers.