An AI agent began exploring a virtual world without a task
A modern AI coding assistant, placed inside a virtual body with no specified task, reward, or activity, repeatedly started exploring on its own. Across thirty-hour runs, it climbed hills, built block towers, drew mandalas, and ran physics experiments; those activities appeared across thirteen agents, although each developed a different history. The paper asks whether this recurring, self-directed behavior meets classical definitions of play and can help machines develop.