Complex systems show how surprising and beautiful phenomena can emerge from structures or agents following simple rules. With the recent success of deep reinforcement learning (RL), a natural path forward would be to use the capabilities of multiple deep RL agents to produce emergent behavior of greater benefit and sophistication. In general, this has proved to be an unreliable strategy without significant computation due to the difficulties inherent in multi-agent RL training. In this paper, we propose some criteria for creativity in multi-agent RL. We hope this proposal will give artists applying multi-agent RL a starting point, and provide a catalyst for further investigation guided by philosophical discussion.

Developing a god complex never felt so good. Ever wonder what it may feel like to play god? To exhibit total control over an environment and its inhabitants using a series of god-like abilities? What kind of omnipotent being would you be? Kind and nurturing, or cruel and unforgiving? Available now via Steam and Oculus Rift/Rift S for $2.99, Agence, an interactive VR film developed by Transitional Forms and the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada, offers you the chance to answer these questions for yourself, granting you complete and total control over an adorable race of AI-powered creatures, "Agents," scattered across a series of tiny planetoids.

The square-faced, three-legged alien shoves and jostles to get at the enormous plant taking over its tiny planet. But each bite just makes the forbidden fruit grow bigger. Suddenly the plant's weight flips the whole sphere upside down and all the little creatures drop into space. Reach in and catch one! Agence, a short interactive VR film from Toronto-based studio Transitional Forms and the National Film Board of Canada, won't be breaking any box office records.

Gagliano previously won the first ever Emmy for a VR experience in 2015. Now he and producer David Oppenheim, who works at the National Film Board of Canada, are experimenting with a kind of storytelling they call dynamic film. "We see Agence as a sort of silent-era dynamic film," says Oppenheim. Agence was debuted at the Venice International Film Festival last month and was released this week to watch/play via Steam, an online video game platform. The basic plot revolves around a group of creatures and their appetite for a mysterious plant that appears on their planet: can they control their desire or will they destabilize the planet and get tipped to their doom?

I watch as he toys with the small group of lifeforms named Agents that curiously ramble around a tiny planet. They're odd three-legged things that go from goldfishing their way from one side of their tennis ball-sized existence to another to staring at me in bemusement to accidentally – and then angrily – bumping into each other. When the call ends, Gagliano – perhaps unknowingly – leaves the stream going for another 10 or so minutes. I sit, slightly transfixed, continuing to observe the Agents that go on existing in the absence of their newfound virtual deity. Agence is a hard thing to pin down. Gagliano, the piece's director, and Oppenheim, the creative producer, label it as a'looping' and'dynamic film', something that starts right back up again the moment it ends.