anthropomorphism in AI

If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II

This paper critiques the widespread practice of ascribing anthropomorphic attributes (e.g., morality, language understanding) to LLMs, arguing that such conclusions are empirically non-unique. The authors demonstrate this by training a neural network on Age of Empires II and showing that similar attribute-ascription logic could apply to arbitrary substrates like LEGO or urban infrastructure. They propose a 'null assumption' of LLM non-uniqueness as a methodological baseline for experiments, and prove that Age of Empires II is functionally- and Turing-complete as a supporting argument.