Researchers Create AI Village Within the Sims-Inspired Sandbox With ChatGPT
In a new paper by researchers out of Stanford, Generative AI was used to create a town full of unique avatars. Powered by ChatGPT, each had their own unique identities, memories, and behaviors, that interacted independently. Using the popular video game The Sims for inspiration, the researchers added 25 “generative agents” into the simulated town.
The researchers said in the study, “We instantiate generative agents to populate an interactive sandbox environment inspired by The Sims, where end users can interact with a small town of twenty-five agents using natural language.”
Once in, the researchers began to make evaluations on patterns and developments within their Sims game. Quickly, things began to get interesting. First, a character by the name of Sam decided that he wanted to run for mayor. As the news spread in the small virtual community two other characters, Tom and John, brought up Sam’s announcement and separately talked about his chances for victory.
Another character by the name of Isabelle was given the idea that she wanted to plan a Valentine’s Day party. Left to her own devices, she started off the day like many people, brushing her teeth and practicing yoga. But as the day progressed, other avatars within the town began to talk about the party. This, in turn, saw them inviting one another, developing new relationships and even asking each other out on dates.
Researchers wrote in the paper about the avatar’s reactions to Sam’s run and Isabelle’s party, “During the two-day simulation, the agents who knew about Sam’s mayoral candidacy increased from one (4 percent) to eight (32 percent), and the agents who knew about Isabella’s party increased from one (4 percent) to twelve (48 percent), completely without user intervention.”
But that wasn’t the end of Sam’s story. Later in the simulation, he met another character Latoya. She opened up about her photography project to Sam. And later when the two characters met again, Sam asked about the progress of her project. This was interesting because the paper was able to highlight independent memory and retrieval by the characters. In all, each of the 25 characters could build extensive lists of observations about their environment and themselves.
This is quite interesting research because with generative AI growing in power, there is some evidence of growing autonomy, as seen in this study and others. In the short term, at least, research like this could help boost a user’s experience in a video game if they choose to power NPCs with generative AI.
And as for AI as a whole, video games are utilizing the power of AI more and more to not only deliver immersive experiences for their users but to also help create alongside writers and artists.
Originally posted on OpenDataScience.com
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