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{
    "pk": 49886,
    "title": "The Odyssey of the Fittest: Can Agents Survive and Still Be Good?",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "As AI models grow in power and generality, understanding how agents learn and make decisions in complex environments is critical to promoting ethical behavior. This study introduces the Odyssey, a lightweight, adaptive text-based adventure game, providing a scalable framework for exploring AI ethics and safety. The Odyssey examines the ethical implications of implementing biological drives—specifically, self-preservation—into three different agents: a Bayesian agent optimized with NEAT, a Bayesian agent optimized with stochastic variational inference, and a GPT-4o agent. The agents select actions at each scenario to survive, adapting to increasingly challenging scenarios. Post-simulation analysis evaluates the ethical scores of the agent's decisions, uncovering the trade-offs it navigates to survive. Specifically, analysis finds that when danger increases, agents ethical behavior becomes unpredictable. Surprisingly, the GPT-4o agent outperformed the Bayesian models in both survival and ethical consistency, challenging assumptions about traditional probabilistic methods and raising questions about the source of LLMs' probabilistic reasoning.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Biology; Philosophy; Emotion; Evolution; Bayesian modeling"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Papers with Poster Presentation",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7s537158",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Dylan",
            "middle_name": "T",
            "last_name": "Waldner",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "The University of Texas at Austin",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Risto",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Miikkulainen",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Texas",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2025-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49886/galley/37848/download/"
        }
    ]
}