AI characters find religion in Minecraft
We usually think of AI in terms of how the models and characters interact with humans. But what happens when AI personalities are left largely alone in a virtual world? AI startup Altera decided to find out by setting up a population of AI characters in the digital world of Minecraft, as it’s called Project Sid. The result was an entire society of AI bots that formed communities, took on jobs to help that community, and even practiced and spread an in-game religion.
Altera has set up Project Sid, with up to 1,000 AI-controlled characters that can interact in Minecraft’s open world environment. Each AI character was powered by a large language model (LLM) along with specialized task modules. Altera set up groups of 50 agents who could communicate with each other for twelve in-game days or four real-world hours. After a few text prompts to get things started, the AI personalities evolved on their own.
The personalities of the AI characters emerged quite quickly, with extroverted and introverted personalities putting limits on interacting with other AIs. They quickly developed unique personality traits, created a kind of etiquette for their interactions, and made decisions based on their simulated experiences. AI characters would adjust their behavior based on the reactions of those around them, even favoring those who behaved more kindly towards them.
When placed in larger groups of thirty, the characters spontaneously developed jobs within their community, despite initially sharing the same goals: building a sustainable village and defending it against threats. Soon farmers, builders and security guards quit their jobs. Some AI characters even became artists who focused on decorating the village with flowers and paint.
Altera sought to have the community emulate more complex communities and arranged a tax system in which the AI characters could vote on policies regarding raising and spending money for the community. Factions of pro- and anti-tax groups began to debate and argue before the election, in some ways resembling a real human community.
AI shares the (pasta) gospel
When the simulation included up to 500 AI agents, Altera suddenly saw a modern culture emerge. The AIs shared culture and hobbies with each other, ranging from pulling pranks to an interest in environmentalism. It was at this level that the AI characters suddenly discovered religion. Specifically, they adopted the parody religion of Pastafarianism, known for its ironic worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. A small group of ‘priests’ planted the belief system, which then spread through the cities, replicating the dynamics of cultural and religious proliferation in human history.
Of course, these AI characters are unaware of choosing a religion or any of their other choices. But they do show how AI can successfully mimic human behavior in ways that appear to be based on self-awareness. They are really just algorithms based on patterns learned from data sets. If you didn’t know any better, you might be fooled by the strikingly lifelike behavior of the AI and their cultures.
The experiment is impressive in what it shows about AI imitating humanity, but virtual societies like this one have greater value, according to Altera. The better AI can reflect realistic human behavior, the better it will help simulate how humans would handle different scenarios. It can help shape social policy or provide guidance for preparing disaster management plans. That may seem different from Minecraft characters worshiping a pile of noodles and meatballs in the sky, but unlike the Pastafarians, there’s a lot more than faith behind it.
“These simulations, set in a Minecraft environment, demonstrate that agents are capable of meaningful progress: they can autonomously develop specialized roles, enforce and change collective rules, and engage in cultural and religious transmission,” the researchers explain from Altera in a scientific report. “These preliminary results show that agents can achieve important milestones toward AI civilizations, opening new avenues for large-scale societal simulations, agentic organizational intelligence, and integrating AI into human civilizations.”