An AI agent was placed on a virtual desert island for 30 hours, spontaneously “playing” and enhancing its learning capabilities.
MIT researchers placed a Claude Opus 4.7 variant (codenamed Eko) in a virtual deserted island environment built on Roblox, without providing task instructions and allowing only autonomous interaction. During 30 hours of unsupervised operation, Eko exhibited play-like behaviors such as exploration, self‑invented rules, object mimicry, and repeated challenges, while generating text logs to record its activities. Subsequent experiments confirmed that agents who engaged in “play” performed better on target tasks, and their behavior closely aligned with the four characteristics of play as defined in psychology; however, the academic community remains cautious about whether they possess genuine motivation.