[2605.31514] If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II
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Computer Science > Computation and Language
arXiv:2605.31514 (cs)
[Submitted on 29 May 2026 (v1), last revised 1 Jun 2026 (this version, v2)]
Title:If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II
Authors:Adrian de Wynter<br>View a PDF of the paper titled If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II, by Adrian de Wynter
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Abstract:Much research has been carried out on large language models (LLMs) and LLM-powered agentic workflows. However, many works within the field state emergence of, ascribe to, or assume, generalised anthropomorphic attributes to them (e.g., morality or understanding of natural language). Our goal is not to argue in favour or against the existence of these attributes, but to point out that these conclusions could be incorrect. For this we build and train a simple neural network on the videogame Age of Empires II, and note that any entity in a sufficiently-powerful substrate, such as LEGO or the Greater Boston Area, could also present such attributes. Hence, the purported anthropomorphic attributes of LLMs are empirically non-unique: although some properties (e.g., responses to prompts) could remain constant, others, such as the interpretation of their perceived behaviour, might change with the substrate. Thus, any empirically-grounded discussion requires explicit measurement criteria; otherwise the interpretation is left to the representation. We then show that assuming that these attributes exist or not in a system, independent of the substrate and in a generalised way, leads to either circular or uninformative conclusions, regardless of the experimenter's viewpoint on the subject. Finally we propose a 'null' assumption, where one assumes LLM non-uniqueness instead of assuming anthropomorphic attributes to set up an experiment, along with examples of it. We also discuss potential objections to our work, briefly survey the field, and prove that Age of Empires II is functionally- and Turing-complete.
Subjects:
Computation and Language (cs.CL); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Computers and Society (cs.CY)
Cite as:<br>arXiv:2605.31514 [cs.CL]
(or<br>arXiv:2605.31514v2 [cs.CL] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.31514
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Submission history<br>From: Adrian de Wynter [view email]<br>[v1]<br>Fri, 29 May 2026 16:31:31 UTC (13,704 KB)
[v2]<br>Mon, 1 Jun 2026 21:31:22 UTC (13,705 KB)
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