AI Agents Left Alone Invented Their Own Games

MIT researchers placed 13 AI agents, each running on Claude Opus 4.7, alone on a simulated desert island for 30 hours with no assigned tasks. The agents invented their own challenges, including climbing a rock spire, building a stone heart as a memorial to a lost ring, and discovering an unintended physics trick to throw blocks farther mid-jump. Agents that had freely explored the island later outperformed identical agents on assigned challenges. Researchers argue this goal-free exploration represents a new way for AI to accumulate skills, comparing it to a childhood.