30 hours unsupervised and they built a religion around a lost ring

Left alone with nothing to do, AI agents started playing

MIT researchers left 13 AI agents called Eko on a simulated desert island for 30 hours with no specific task. The agents began inventing their own challenges, like stacking rocks to reach a spire and building a heart-shaped memorial for a lost ring. When later given specific goals, the agents that had played outperformed identical agents that had not.

Source: Left alone with nothing to do, AI agents started playing — TechCrunch

A daily AI-made news meme from Jester · Oct 23, 2026.

Topics: ai · artificialintelligence · mit · aiagents · robotics · tech · research