We're thrilled to announce the 2024 Virtual Creatures Competition at ALIFE 2024 in Copenhagen. In a world where the digital and biological realms converge, the significance of virtual creatures becomes increasingly profound.

Virtual creatures serve as digital pioneers, pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation in artificial life. By simulating lifelike entities in a virtual environment, we gain invaluable insights into emergent behaviors, co-evolutionary dynamics, and the limitless possibilities of open-ended design.

This inclusive competition welcomes participants from all walks of life. Below, you'll find guidelines and inspirational themes for your submissions:

• Open-endedness

• Virtual creatures at multiple scales

• Emergence

• Co-evolution of brain and body

• Differentiable morphological optimization

• Evolving for less well-defined behaviors – i.e. novelty search, evolving for intrinsic motivations, etc.

This competition is being sponsored by a stealth R&D entity focusing on artificial life and virtual creatures at scale. 

The first-place winner will not only claim the prestigious title, but also receive a cash prize of $250, exclusive branded merchandise, and an exciting opportunity for a job interview. If you are genuinely excited about creating new life… this is for you. 

Join us in shaping the future of virtual ecosystems at ALIFE 2024!

If you want to read more about the importance of virtual creatures, check out this article by Sam Kreigman: Why virtual creatures matter | Nature Machine Intelligence.