this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Sounds about right, unfortunately.
I read a bit of the article and watched most of the YouTube video embedded in it. It's definitely worth a read/watch.
The video narrator keeps going back to the argument "they didn't tell the agents to do XYZ!" Yeah no shit, that's the whole point behind agents! They are autonomous and extrapolate actions based on the situation they find themselves in. The implication the guy is trying to make is that these agents are sentient, which is a stretch and a bit misleading.
But... it's still a really interesting series of exercises. Especially the Minecraft one. And if nothing else it gives researchers pointers about how they can improve agent decision-making, and everyone more insight into how they operate.
The video downplays several clear instructions and limitations as if everything came from a single line command to AI, like when humans added 2 agents that would think that "taxes are too high". An actual newsworthy video would've been leaving such agents without any implicit or explicit command to bother with taxes and, after some time, find out they started to play with taxes within minecraft, which is a game that does not have any sort of in game market or currency.
The video/experiment should've added 2 or 3 agents to the group that had no mention of taxes whatsoever and see if the others that are taxed would've been bothered.