404 Media
404 Media
@404mediaco·61.3K subscribers·413 videos

If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’, Researcher Says

Posted

June 18, 2026

Views

1,955

Likes

199

Comments

21

Engagement

11.25%

Search the Record

Indexed

Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.

Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.

Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line

YouTube Description

as posted by the channel

“If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II,” is the title of Adrian de Wynter’s paper showing his work. He told 404 Media that absurdity can be a powerful tool. “I have this tendency to dial up things to 11 when I really think I need to make a point,” he said. “I should also note that absurdism is pretty standard in philosophy and theoretical computer science.”

And so De Wynter built an LLM within AoEII using goats. “The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily, and that sometimes the claims we make with regards to LLM capabilities are too strong,” he told 404 Media. “It's not an easy task, given that ‘human-like attributes’ is a bit of an abstract term.”

This is a production of 404 Media, a journalist-owned tech website. Learn more and subscribe at: htttps://404media.co

Listen to our weekly podcasts:

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Become a paid subscriber for access to bonus content

Guests & Subjects Covered

Empires IIDe WynterMedia It's

Sentinel Indexing in Progress

Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.

All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.

If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’, Researcher Says · 404 Media · Sentinel