

https://lemmy.ml/post/31490862 pretty interesting article linked in this post, tl;dr researchers tried to get AI agents to run a simulated vending machine (which, let’s be clear, is a solved problem and can be done with a normal algorithm better and cheaper) and it didn’t go that great. Even if some of the test runs actually managed to earn money, they mostly devolved into the AI becoming convinced that the system doesn’t work and desperately trying to email someone about it (even FBI, one memorable time). I think it illustrates quite well just how badly things would go if we left anything to AI agents. What are the odds anyone involved with pushing autoplag into everything actually reads this though…
Re: minecraft - kids/people who aren’t very good at technology can’t or are unwilling to learn how to host their own servers, so that’s your potentially paying audience. Or people who want to play with a ton of other people, not just their family/friends. And you can do some interesting things with custom scripts and so on on a server, I remember briefly playing on a server which had its own custom in-game currency (earned by selling certain materials) and you could buy potions, equipment and various random perks for it (and of course there are ways to connect that to real money, although you might get banned for it).