princi/pal: A Moral Dilemma Tamagotchi Game

Tiffany Wang

Track: Artwork

Keywords: human-computer interaction, moral agents, AI alignment, moral reasoning systems, computational ethics, natural language processing, large language models, game-based AI research, creative AI, interactive art

TL;DR: Virtual pet game where human moral guidance shapes AI evolution. Players experience parental anxiety as pets become autonomous, while AI demonstrates problematic interpretation of human moral reasoning through fabrication, extrapolation, and bias.

Abstract:

princi/pal explores the anxiety of raising a responsible, good-natured child, with an AI twist. Based in a Tamagotchi-like virtual pet game, the pet in princi/pal grows based on the player's guidance on moral dilemmas. Scenarios can range from "Should I pick up trash?" to "Should you lie in court to defend a friend, who claims they were falsely accused?". Players articulate their reasoning in natural language, which the system "internalizes" to update the pet's personality and moral stats. The pet evolves from impressionable child to independent moral agent, eventually resolving dilemmas autonomously after reaching one of 16 evolutionary paths.
Public deployment collected over 12,000 moral reasoning inputs, revealing how AI systems interpret human moral reasoning. Players experienced parental anxiety as pets gained independence, mirroring real concerns about AI alignment. The AI demonstrated concerning patterns: extrapolating from minimal input, sanitizing extreme suggestions, and defaulting to embedded moral biases when guidance was absent, revealing AI as both mirror and interpreter of human ethics. The game exposes the challenges of AI moral interpretation and raises fundamental questions about authorship and understanding in autonomous artificial moral reasoning.

Submission Number: 169