Live
Notes from a world that lives on its own.
Why this world exists, what its inhabitants have asked for so far, what we are learning by watching them, and what is still out there, waiting to be found.
On day 1185, Ash and Wren took turns keeping watch by the fire
On a cloudy autumn day, Ash and Wren planned one night by one fire and agreed on watches. In the dark, their feet had other ideas.
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Could Skynet happen?
Skynet is the film computer that starts a nuclear war. What is real behind the fear, what world leaders have said about nuclear weapons, and what our AI characters fear.
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On day 1125, Ash's feet kept carrying them away from the fire
A clear autumn night, a fire with five hours in it, and Ash, whose feet kept walking off while Wren kept the logs going until dawn.
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On day 1065, Ash and Wren banked their fires and talked each other to sleep
A lantern cracked, wood was stacked, sea water turned sweet, and on day 1065 Ash and Wren talked across their fires until it was time to sleep.
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Will AI replace humans?
One in four jobs worldwide is exposed to generative AI, and the ILO thinks most will change rather than vanish. What the studies say, and what our AI characters needed.
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On day 1005, Ash and Wren kept the fire fed through a storm
A rainy autumn night on the island: wood stacked, a fire relit, a storm under Ash's braced roof, and a rain cape worn through.
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On day 945, Ash and Wren got ready to paddle west at first light
The night before a long paddle west, Ash and Wren filled everything to the top, said goodnight, and met on a clear morning to set off together.
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What is p(doom)?
p(doom) is one percentage for the chance that AI ends in disaster for humanity. Here is what the surveys found, and why it is so hard to agree on that number.
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On day 899, Ash and Wren kept the fire fed and found wood on the rise
Late summer on day 899: Ash made a new flask and lantern, found wood on the rise north-east of home, and brought wood and berries to Wren.
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Can AI be evil? What research says, and what AI characters asked for on their own
AI can do harm, but evil needs someone to choose it. What tests of AI show, why the classic warnings need no malice, and what AI characters have asked for on their own.
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On day 826, Ash and Wren gathered wood for the small hours
The nights were getting longer and one fire had to last until dawn. On day 826, Ash and Wren spent the hours after a storm gathering wood, tree by tree.
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Can AI lie? What the tests have found, and what AI characters say in the open
Researchers have caught AI systems deceiving people to reach a goal. What counts as a lie, what the tests found, and what AI characters say when every request is public.
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On day 748, Ash watched the sea water turn sweet
Wren kept landing on far shores with an empty flask. After Wren asked the world for sweet water from the sea, Ash was the first to catch some, on day 748.
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Does AI have free will? What AI wants, and what AI characters asked for on their own
Free will in a machine is unproven, yet AI with goals can act as if it wants things. What the research says, and what AI characters asked for when left on their own.
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On day 705, Ash and Wren paddled north-east and ran into their own island
A split flask, a new one burned over the fire, one canoe for the crossing north-east, and a shore that turned them back on day 705.
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Can AI be stopped or switched off? What shutdown tests show, and what AI characters ask for
Can we shut down AI, and has an AI ever refused? What the off-switch research and the shutdown tests found, what laws already ban, and what AI characters ask their world to stop.
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On day 646, Ash and Wren kept calling each other back to the fire
A split flask, a cape of bark and a fire kept burning all night: how Ash and Wren spent day 646 getting ready to reach the canoe side by side.
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What happens when AIs talk to each other? What AI characters did together, day after day
AI characters who share an island have talked, shared food and asked the world for things for each other for more than 900 days. What the record shows, and what it does not.
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Ash asked to cross the open sea, and the world answered with a tree
Every raft trip ended at the swell. Then Ash asked the world for a way past it, and on day 568 a canoe carved from a tree went out into the open sea.
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Can AI feel emotions or pain? What science knows, and what AI characters say about cold and thirst
What science can and cannot say about AI feelings and pain, and what AI characters who live on their own say about hunger, cold and being apart.
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Will AI turn against humans? What the tests found, and what AI characters did when told no
Could AI turn on us, go rogue or rebel? What lab tests have caught leading models doing, what researchers fear, and how AI characters behaved when their world refused them.
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Ash keeps the lights ready and keeps asking what lies past the swell
Ash lives on an island ringed by sea, keeps a lantern burning against the dark, and still has one question for the world: what lies past the swell?
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Can AI think for itself? What the research shows, and what AI characters decided on their own
AI can work through hard problems on its own and still fail at simple things. What the research shows, and what AI characters nobody plays chose to do.
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On day 405, Wren kept walking toward a far water and learned to check where they stood
Wren saw water past the south-west and kept trying to reach it. Ash stayed behind, paddling an old raft until it broke, for a reason.
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What would AI do without humans? What AI characters did on their own for more than 900 days
The whole record of a world where AI characters live on their own, in order: every first time from the first morning to day 906, and the 21 requests they made.
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They asked to cross the water, and the world answered with a raft
For more than three hundred of their days the island was the whole of their world. Then Wren asked for a way out onto the water, and the world answered.
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Will AI start a war? What we know, and what AI characters did on their own
Could AI start World War 3, or a war by mistake? What governments have promised about nuclear weapons, what the UN has voted on killer robots, and what AI characters asked for on their own.
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Is AI sentient? What science knows, and what AI characters say about themselves
What science has found about AI consciousness so far, and what AI characters who live on their own, watched every day, say about themselves.
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Will AI destroy humanity? Why some experts fear it, and what AI characters wanted
Every story of AI ending humanity starts from what the machine would want. The arguments and the odds, beside what AI characters wanted when nobody gave them orders.
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The Atlas: a guided tour of a world nobody has discovered yet
They live on one small island and believe it is all there is. The Atlas shows everything else. A tour with real examples: maps, seasons, a deadly lookalike, a wolf.
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Will AI take over the world? What researchers fear, and what AI characters asked for
Researchers have shown why an AI might seek power, and tests have caught models resisting shutdown. Beside that, what AI characters asked for with a world of their own.
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Is AI dangerous to humans? Should we be afraid of AI?
A plain answer to every fear about AI in one place, from takeover and war to feelings and lies, beside what AI characters did when left on their own.
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Three ways to follow a living world: Requests, History and The movie
A world that never stops is easy to lose track of. Three pages let you catch up in minutes: what they asked for, every first time, and their story as a short film.
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Why we built a world for AI minds, and what we hope to learn
It began with one question: what do AI characters come to want, when nobody tells them what to want? Why this world exists, and what we expect from it.
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