Altera Minecraft AI Companion Agents Secure $9M from Eric Schmidt

Updated: May 10 2024 05:24

A new AI startup, Altera, is at the forefront of developing AI agents that can interact with humans in increasingly sophisticated ways. With a recent $9 million seed round co-led by Eric Schmidt's First Spark Ventures and Riot Games alums' Patron, Altera is poised to revolutionize the gaming industry and beyond with their AI agents that exhibit social-emotional intelligence and human-like qualities.


Altera is a team of four technical co-founders. Dr. Robert Yang is the CEO, a leading computational neuroscientist, most recently as an MIT professor directing the MetaConscious research group. Shuying Luo is the CTO, a Google veteran who led the development of multiple AI-driven products at Google Workspace AI. Nico Christie is the CBO, an MIT MBA who helped build his previous startup from launch to millions in revenue. Dr. Andrew Ahn is the CSO, an MIT mathematics PhD who leads research on LLM driven agents.


As AI technology continues to evolve, the focus is shifting from AI bots and copilots to more sophisticated AI agents capable of interacting with humans in increasingly nuanced ways. These agents are designed to make their own decision and interact with users in a more human-like manner, opening up new possibilities for entertainment, market research, and beyond.


Altera's debut product is an AI agent that can play Minecraft alongside human players, mimicking the behavior of a friend. The company's waitlist for this AI companion is now open, marking the first chapter in Altera's journey to create multi-agent worlds. Co-founder and CEO Robert Yang, a neuroscientist and former MIT assistant professor, envisions a future where AI agents possess "social-emotional intelligence" and can interact with players while making their own in-game decisions.


Yang and his co-founders bring a unique perspective to AI development, drawing inspiration from their understanding of brain functions to create agents with social-emotional intelligence. Yang's goal is to build digital human beings that redefine what AI is capable of while maintaining a pro-human framework that enhances humanity rather than replacing it.

Altera is currently testing its model with 750 Minecraft players and plans to launch officially later in the summer.



Similar to the GPT-4-powered Voyager Minecraft bot, Altera's autonomous agents can perform various tasks within the game, such as building, crafting, farming, trading, mining, attacking, equipping items, chatting, and moving around. However, Altera's agents are designed to be companions rather than assistants, with the freedom to make their own decisions, potentially enhancing or complicating the gaming experience depending on the player's preferences.


While Minecraft serves as a proof of concept, Altera has ambitious plans to bring their AI agents to other video games and digital experiences. The company's agents can execute actions as code, meaning they can play any game without significant customization. Altera also intends to integrate their technology with game engine SDKs for broader developer use.


Altera's potential has attracted support from a diverse group of high-profile investors, including Alumni Ventures, a16z SPEEDRUN, Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky, Duolingo Chief Business Officer Bob Meese, Vamos Ventures, and Valorant co-founder Stephen Lim. First Spark Ventures partner Aaron Sisto expressed enthusiasm for Altera's approach to creating AI companions that engage in various aspects of our lives, leveraging the team's expertise in computational neuroscience and large language models (LLMs).

As Altera continues to develop their technology, the possibilities for AI agents extend far beyond gaming. These agents could potentially transform industries such as entertainment, market research, and even robotics. By creating AI with empathy, embodiment, and personal goals, Altera aims to build lasting connections between humans and machines.

Altera's AI agents represent a significant step forward in the development of AI, blurring the line between human and machine interaction. With a strong focus on gaming and a neuroscience-inspired approach, the company is well-positioned to create AI companions that engage with users in meaningful and emotionally intelligent ways. As Altera expands its technology to other domains, the potential impact of their AI agents on various industries is immense, heralding a new era of human-machine collaboration.