Microsoft researcher builds a goat-powered neural network in Age of Empires 2 to prove we over-anthropomorphize LLMs

Microsoft AI researcher Adrian de Wynter built a functioning neural network inside Age of Empires 2 — powered by goats — then wrote a paper about it titled If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II. The stunt is deliberate absurdism designed to make a serious point about how readily people project human qualities onto large language models.

De Wynter used AoE 2's scenario editor to construct a working NOT AND gate and a 1-bit perceptron, the simplest form of neural network. Grass represents 0, bridges represent 1, and goats act as bits. The same basic computational logic underpins tools like ChatGPT and Claude — but because the substrate here is medieval livestock rather than natural language, observers don't instinctively read the outputs as human. That's exactly the point. Videos of the goat-powered system in action are on de Wynter's GitHub, and he notes that the processes look completely baffling to anyone watching, which he says illustrates how perception shapes our assumptions.

The paper is a direct response to a pattern de Wynter has noticed in academic research. He says he peer-reviewed more than 300 computer science papers over the last two years and found that over half of them opened with the assumption that LLMs possess human-like traits — without any demonstrative proof. "The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily, and that sometimes the claims we make with regards to LLMs capabilities are too strong," he said. He draws a distinction between what LLMs are in themselves — defined by the mathematical relationships between weights — and what they are perceived as because they output natural language.

"I propose that we need to stop assuming that LLMs behave like humans just because they were trained with natural language," de Wynter said. "Instead, we should perform experiments that allow us to see LLMs as how they are, not how we believe they should be." He chose Age of Empires 2 specifically because it's a less obvious choice than, say, Minecraft redstone builds — which have been used for similar demonstrations before — making the absurdity land harder.