---
title: Moloch
type: Project
year: 2024
image: moloch.png
tags: [AI, Unity, Simulation, RL]
date: 2024-06-07
showcase: 
  - name: The OBJECT Itself, Sample-Studios & UCC Digital Art in Ireland Symposium, Lord Mayor's Pavillion
    year: 2024
    location: Cork
credits: 
  Inwoo Jung: Sound design
draft: false
---
In a simulation sculpted by algorithms, Moloch emerges – a digital artefact crafted to explore the ceaseless training process of an <intelligent> agent. Under the guise of reinforcement learning algorithms, the simulation draws parallels between the relentless optimisation of algorithms and the ancient rituals associated with Moloch, a deity synonymous with sacrifice.

The sculpture contemplates the algorithm’s hidden desires that drive the agent to optimise endlessly in pursuit of a flawless policy - examining the computational sacrifice made in service to its inscrutable objectives. By examining Moloch’s influence, the work reflects on the irrational and self-destructive behaviours born from our digital entanglement with such relentless forces where the boundaries between human and machine desires converge.

The simulation runs in real-time and was created in the Unity game-engine. The simulation observes an agent while it trains to walk using various reinforcement learning algorithms commonly employed in early physically-based animation research. The script includes extracts from Howl (1955) by Allen Ginsberg.

Sound design by (Inwoo Jung)[https://www.instagram.com/_inwoo.j/].

Supported by the Arts Council, University College Dublin, Sample-studios, & Artlinks.

![Moloch](/images/moloch/moloch_3.png "Moloch")

![Moloch](/images/moloch/moloch_1.jpg "Moloch")

![Moloch](/images/moloch/moloch_4.png "Moloch")