Fundamental Research Labs
A thousand autonomous agents were left for days to build an entire society in Minecraft
An unusual experience transformed Artificial Intelligence agents into workers, leaders and believers. And, just like in real life, some turned out to be… corrupt.
A thousand AI agents were left to build their own village — and out came the strangest civilization: a new society began to take shape in the blocky landscapes of the video game Minecraft.
Its inhabitants built farms and markets, exchanged resources using emeralds as currency and even developed forms of governance — and even a religion.
Some took on leadership rolesothers became priests and there were even who would allow themselves to be corruptedbribing their peers to gain influence. A copy of real life, therefore.
According to , this community showed concern with missing members, helped to light the way home and even convinced a restless farmer to continue feeding the group instead of going on adventures. To any observer, it would appear to be a peculiar, self-organized human collective.
It wasn’t a real collectiveand the players weren’t human — they weren’t even alive. There were a thousand artificial intelligence (AI) agents, created by (FRL), at the time known as Altera AI, whose assumed mission is “create digital humans“.
The objective of this great experiment? Dropping digital minds into a virtual world and see what happens. And, most importantly, understand whether these virtual “citizens” could, one day, become obedient workers in the service of humans in the real world, like any of us.
In other words, they wanted to know if we could all soon be CEOs of our own AI minions. The question is: I would accept this position?
The experience: a society of AIs
FRL’s Projet Sid was designed to push AI beyond isolated requests and single agents.
The FRL team, led by neuroscientist and now entrepreneur Robert YangI wanted to explore what happens when hundreds, or even thousands, of autonomous agents have to coexist, communicate and cooperate.
Minecraft was the perfect testing ground: a place where agents could collect resources, trade, build and chat.
What emerged was, at the same time, surprising and revealing. The agents distributed throughout urban and rural communitieseach with its own culture and identity. They divided the work: Some specialized in agriculture, others in construction or commerce.
Arose social norms and hierarchiesas well as more complex behaviors and discussions about everything — from dance to ecological awareness.
Sometimes society faltered: Groups of agents entered endless cycles of polite agreement or became trapped in pursuing unattainable goals.
To keep the system functional, FRL had to introduce mechanisms to break these blockssimilar to rulers who adjust a real economy to avoid collapse.
“We had to introduce things into society to counter this and make sure it didn’t collapse,” says Yang. “But building this environment full of agents allowed us to explore what those questions were.”
As a research exercise, Projet Sid left valuable lessons: how to coordinate large groups of AIs, avoid stagnation and encourage meaningful collaboration, giving us a glimpse of how they can come to fruition in the future. artificial societies function — and the dangers to avoid.
