mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

JaxLife: An Open-Ended Agentic Simulator

arXiv 2409.00853 ↗First posted 1 Sep 2024cs.AI cs.NEcited by 6

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

Human intelligence emerged through the process of natural selection and evolution on Earth. We investigate what it would take to re-create this process in silico. While past work has often focused on low-level processes (such as simulating physics or chemistry), we instead take a more targeted approach, aiming to evolve agents that can accumulate open-ended culture and technologies across generations. Towards this, we present JaxLife: an artificial life simulator in which embodied agents, parameterized by deep neural networks, must learn to survive in an expressive world containing programmable systems. First, we describe the environment and show that it can facilitate meaningful Turing-complete computation. We then analyze the evolved emergent agents' behavior, such as rudimentary communication protocols, agriculture, and tool use. Finally, we investigate how complexity scales with the amount of compute used. We believe JaxLife takes a step towards studying evolved behavior in more open-ended simulations. Our code is available at https://github.com/luchris429/JaxLife

Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 23 of its 63 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Sep 2024.

Builds on

23 of 63 references.

References · 23

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
  3. 2013Deep Inside Convolutional Networks: Visualising Image Classification Models and Saliency Mapscited by 2,348
  4. 2019Emergent Tool Use From Multi-Agent Autocurriculacited by 308
  5. 2021Open-Ended Learning Leads to Generally Capable Agentscited by 177
  6. 2022Discovered Policy Optimisationcited by 103
  7. 2019AI-GAs: AI-generating algorithms, an alternate paradigm for producing general artificial intelligencecited by 84
  8. 2024Craftax: A Lightning-Fast Benchmark for Open-Ended Reinforcement Learningcited by 80
  9. 2017A multi-agent reinforcement learning model of common-pool resource appropriationcited by 68
  10. 2019Learning to Control Self-Assembling Morphologies: A Study of Generalization via Modularitycited by 68
  11. 2023JaxMARL: Multi-Agent RL Environments and Algorithms in JAXcited by 59
  12. 2019Autocurricula and the Emergence of Innovation from Social Interaction: A Manifesto for Multi-Agent Intelligence Researchcited by 58
11 more
  1. 2020Meta Learning Backpropagation And Improving Itcited by 49
  2. 2022Model-Free Opponent Shapingcited by 43
  3. 2019Neural MMO: A Massively Multiagent Game Environment for Training and Evaluating Intelligent Agentscited by 42
  4. 2018Lenia - Biology of Artificial Lifecited by 41
  5. 2022Emergent Bartering Behaviour in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 18
  6. 2024Discovering Temporally-Aware Reinforcement Learning Algorithmscited by 18
  7. 2024MineLand: Simulating Large-Scale Multi-Agent Interactions with Limited Multimodal Senses and Physical Needscited by 16
  8. 2023Biomaker CA: a Biome Maker project using Cellular Automatacited by 9
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  10. 2023Amorphous Fortress: Observing Emergent Behavior in Multi-Agent FSMscited by 3
  11. 2021Exploring Evolved Multicellular Life Histories in a Open-Ended Digital Evolution Systemcited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 2; 2025: 3; 2026: 1.

6 papers.

  1. 2024Automating the Search for Artificial Life with Foundation Modelscited by 20
  2. 2025Cross-environment Cooperation Enables Zero-shot Multi-agent Coordinationcited by 14
  3. 2026Digital Red Queen: Adversarial Program Evolution in Core War with LLMscited by 7
  4. 2024The Digital Ecosystem of Beliefs: does evolution favour AI over humans?cited by 1
  5. 2025Guiding Evolution of Artificial Life Using Vision-Language Modelscited by 1
  6. 2025The Emergence of Complex Behavior in Large-Scale Ecological Environmentscited by 1

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026OpenLife: Toward Open-World Artificial Life with Autonomous LLM Agents
  2. 2024Project Sid: Many-agent simulations toward AI civilization
  3. 2025Static Sandboxes Are Inadequate: Modeling Societal Complexity Requires Open-Ended Co-Evolution in LLM-Based Multi-Agent Simulations
  4. 2026Cultivating Machine Intelligence: The OMEGA Shift from Top-Down Optimization to Autopoietic Cognitive Ecologies
  5. 2025A Comprehensive Survey of Self-Evolving AI Agents: A New Paradigm Bridging Foundation Models and Lifelong Agentic Systems
  6. 2025One Life to Learn: Inferring Symbolic World Models for Stochastic Environments from Unguided Exploration
  7. 2024Emergence of Implicit World Models from Mortal Agents
  8. 2025FLEX: Continuous Agent Evolution via Forward Learning from Experience