The Energy Society: A Simulation Environment for Studying Agent Cooperation under Survival Pressure

arXiv cs.CL · 6 hours ago

Researchers created The Energy Society, a simulation environment where large language model-based agents compete or cooperate to survive by spending energy proportional to model size for token generation and earning energy through job completion or donations. In experiments, larger models consistently spent more energy than they earned, while cooperative incentives caused agents to donate to reactivate others even at personal cost, and communication mechanisms like action recommendations improved coordination. The testbed reveals how token costs combined with group incentives shape agent behavior under survival pressure.