We usually think about AI in terms of how the models and characters interact with humans. But what happens when AI personalities are left mostly on their own 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 for what it calls Project Sid. The result was an entire society of AI bots forming communities, taking on jobs to help that community, and even adhering to and spreading an in-game religion.
Altera set up Project Sid, with up to 1,000 AI-controlled characters able to interact within 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 able to engage with each other over 12 in-game days or four real hours. After a couple of text prompts to kick things up, the AI personalities evolved on their own.
