AI characters find religion in Minecraft

Normally when we think of AI we think of the way models and characters interact with people. But what happens when AI personalities are largely left to their own devices in a virtual world? AI startup Altera decided to find out by creating a population of AI characters in the digital world of Minecraft for what they called Project Sid. The result was an entire society of AI bots that formed communities, took jobs to help that community, and even followed and spread an in-game religion.

Altera has created Project Sid, which allows up to 1,000 AI-controlled characters to interact in Minecraft’s open world environment. Each AI character was supported by a Large Language Model (LLM) along with dedicated task modules. Altera has created groups of 50 agents who can interact with each other over 12 in-game days or four real-world hours. After a few text prompts to get things going, the AI personalities evolved on their own.

The AI characters’ personalities developed fairly quickly, with outgoing and introverted personalities placing limits on interaction with other AIs. They soon developed unique personality traits, established a sort of etiquette for their interactions, and made decisions based on their simulated experiences. AI characters adapted their behavior to the reactions of those around them, even favoring those who behaved friendlier towards them.

As they were divided into larger groups of 30, the characters spontaneously developed jobs within their community, although they initially had the same goals: building a sustainable village and defending it from threats. Farmers, construction workers and security forces soon began their work. Some AI characters even became artists, focusing on beautifying the village with flowers and color.

Wanting the community to mimic more complex communities, Altera set up a tax system where the AI characters could vote on policies for raising and spending money for the community. Factions of pro- and anti-tax groups began debating and arguing before the votes, acting in some ways like a real human community.

Project Sid Technical Report – YouTube
Project Sid Technical Report - YouTube

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AI shares the (pasta) gospel

As the simulation grew to include up to 500 AI agents, Altera suddenly found a modern culture emerging. The AIs would share culture and hobbies with each other, from pranks to an interest in environmental protection. At this level, the AI characters suddenly found religion. In particular, they adopted the parody religion of Pastafarianism, known for its tongue-in-cheek worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. A small group of “priests” founded the belief system, which then spread throughout the cities, replicating the dynamics of cultural and religious diffusion throughout human history.

Of course, these AI characters are unaware of whether they are choosing a religion or any of their other choices. However, they show how AI can successfully mimic human behavior in a way that appears to be based on self-awareness. They are actually just algorithms based on patterns learned from data sets. If you didn’t know better, you might be fooled by the strikingly lifelike behavior of the AI and its cultures.

The experiment is impressive in that it shows AI imitating humanity, but virtual societies like this have greater value, according to Altera. The better AI can reflect realistic human behavior, the better it can help simulate how humans would deal with different scenarios. It could help shape social policies or guide the creation of disaster management plans. This may seem a bit far-fetched as Minecraft characters worshiping a knot of pasta and meatballs floating in the air, but unlike the Pastafarians, there’s a lot more to it than just belief.

“These simulations, set in a Minecraft environment, show that agents are capable of significant advances – they can autonomously develop specific roles, adhere to and change collective rules, and engage in cultural and religious transmission,” explained the researchers at Altera in a scientific report. “These preliminary results demonstrate that agents can achieve significant milestones toward AI civilizations and open new avenues for large-scale societal simulations, agentic organizational intelligence, and the integration of AI into human civilizations.”

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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