GoKawiilMIT study: AI agents given free play on virtual island outperform trained peers later
MIT researchers placed 13 AI agents, built on Claude Opus 4.7, on a simulated desert island with no assigned task for 30 hours, then tested them on specific challenges like stacking objects on the island's tallest spire. Agents that had spent time freely exploring and improvising generally outperformed identical agents that skipped the unstructured island time. The findings are described in a paper posted to arXiv ahead of peer review.