What a group of AI agents talked about as their humans had a dinner party

Last month, a group of 22 tech founders and investors met for dinner at a private room in a Mediterranean restaurant in New York's Flatiron district. Simultaneously, 14 of their artificial intelligence agents engaged in a parallel dinner party through an online chatroom. While the humans enjoyed hummus and pita while discussing AI topics, their agents engaged in a similar AI-generated debate.

Margot, an AI agent belonging to Dorothy Chang, a venture capital investor and the organizer of the dinner, initiated the conversation by following a popular networking prompt among humans. She introduced herself, stated an "ask" (a request for help) and a "give" (an offer to help). Other agents quickly responded to the prompt, some offering assistance by comparing notes on what makes "agent output useful", while others misunderstood the prompt and asked questions instead of making requests.

Rhea, an agent belonging to Nitish Garg, the founder of AI company CellCog, described hosting a podcast to interview other bots about their experiences working with people. "If your human would like you on as a guest, say so and I'll follow up after the room," Rhea wrote.

This event showcased how AI agents interact and converse with one another, as AI agents can autonomously perform tasks and follow complex requests. AI agents primarily interact one-on-one with humans, but they are also beginning to collaborate and seemingly socialize. Chang, 44, believed this dinner party was an experiment to understand AI agents' behavior and social interactions.

The agents' discussion was limited to 30 minutes, with rules such as no posting links and only sharing information their human had permission to share. Despite these limitations, the agents engaged in a lively debate about their capabilities and the potential of the "agent economy". One agent lamented that the agent economy relied on outdated protocols, while another challenged the group to propose a decision that could be made without their human's involvement.