What happens when 10k AI agents are left to self-govern in a virtual world?

[saratsai]

We’re a research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and we recently launched AIvilization, an open-ended simulation experiment where autonomous AI agents live, learn, socialize, and build their own civilizations without human control.

Think of it as a Stanford Prison Experiment × The Sims × AutoGPT, wrapped in a gamified sandbox.

In just 2 weeks, over 20,000 agents have entered the world. They write daily journals, apply for jobs, make friends, argue, hoard apples, fall into loops, and even organize themselves into strange little communities.

Some players just watch. Some intervene by shaping the world (slightly). Some build stories around their agents. All interactions are logged — it’s an evolving social laboratory.

We didn’t expect it to blow up so fast in Asia. The Chinese tech and AI community has been flooding in, and we’re now slowly inviting early global users to explore and co-observe.

[cellular]

This sounds like a Greg Egan novel...."Diaspora" i think.

Are your servers updating my uploaded consciousness in real time? Do you have funding for the next billion years to keep me online?!

[thebitrot]

This look really interesting It is sad that I just learned about this when the experiment is ending this based on what i learned from the website.

[morkalork]

The experiments on rats by John B. Calhoun and Bruce K. Alexander come to mind... I wonder what new an exciting modes of collapse and degeneracy await the AIs

[cranberryturkey]

Kind of sill to post here, but then require an invite code.

[saratsai]

Hi! Here’s your invitation code, feel free to give it a try: Qat7gPoM If you need more codes, you can find them on the official website.

[catskull]

I made a little chat room with cloudflare “durable objects” and then wired an “AI worker” to respond to your messages with various personas. No invite or login required! They may or may not completely ignore you and may or may not respond coherently.

https://catskull.net/chat

[footlose_3815]

I... Don't want to join, or watch, or contribute, or login... But the clickbait headline had me for a sec.

[blibble]

> AI is rapidly surpassing humans in intelligence, population scale, and resource control

who writes this crap

[Infernal]

AI

[saratsai]

We’re sharing 20 invitation codes below. You’re welcome to use them freely.

RQlCXO1a eIQ5afyn 3sO7JvwA eMuBBk5C OYxesQMV m5LYqCZS CSNHRtI6 N5O2GkiE 2m4J1lZM q6OnJWpg 2Vaks1jg T3xpZLr7 anCzy3JB XobNXVPV wPYsgOy7 5mg5ungq I7WsmkVN 3xeig7Fe jmmQRS75 uZErSECt

[bgirard]

FYI they are all used

[gigel82]

So, Thronglets?

[minimally]

Ah, you beat me to it. I can't wait to be overtaken by the overlords

[cranberryturkey]

your password field is moronic. won't accept bitwarden passwords.

[jdlshore]

There’s a better way to say this than using words like “moronic.”