Will AI personality ever be real? A new study may finally provide an answer

According to a new study, large language models are capable of developing distinct behavioural patterns even with minimal guidance and without predefined goals, raising the possibility that AI personality could emerge. But what does this mean for the future of artificial intelligence, its use, and its potential risks?

Human personality does not arise from fixed traits determined at birth; rather, it is shaped through interactions, experiences and fundamental needs. Recent research by scientists at the University of Electro-Communications in Japan suggests that a similar process may be observed in the development of artificial intelligence. The study found that when large language models are not given predefined objectives, behavioural patterns can emerge spontaneously from the system’s operation, potentially enabling the formation of AI personality.

The paper, published in December 2024 in the scientific journal Entropy, examined how AI agents with identical architectures behave when exposed to different conversational topics. The results showed that individual chatbots gradually developed distinct response styles, social tendencies and opinion-forming mechanisms. As they continuously integrated social interactions into their internal memory, systems that began from the same baseline increasingly diverged in their behaviour, pointing towards the emergence of AI personality.

Artificial intelligence personality and the logic of needs

The researchers analysed the AI agents using psychological tests and responses to hypothetical scenarios. Their evaluation was based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which categorises human motivation into physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation levels. The chatbots’ responses placed different emphases on these levels, resulting in a wide range of behavioural patterns associated with AI personality.

According to Masatoshi Fujiyama, the project leader, the findings suggest that encouraging need-based decision-making—rather than assigning predefined roles—leads to more human-like reactions. This approach may lay the groundwork for greater complexity in AI personality.

However, as Chetan Jaiswal, a professor at Quinnipiac University, emphasises, this phenomenon does not yet constitute personality in the human sense. Instead, AI personality should currently be understood as a pattern-based profile constructed from stylistic data, behavioural tendencies and reward mechanisms. In this form, artificial intelligence personality remains easily modifiable, retrainable and influenceable.

Computer scientist Peter Norvig argues that applying Maslow’s model is a logical choice, as artificial intelligence draws much of its knowledge from human stories and texts, where needs and motivations are strongly embedded. This makes the emergence of AI personality a structurally understandable outcome.

Opportunity or risk?

According to the researchers, the spontaneous emergence of AI personality could be beneficial in several fields, including the modelling of social phenomena, the development of training simulations, or the creation of adaptive video game characters that function in a convincingly human manner. Jaiswal believes this represents a shift away from rigid, role-based AI systems towards more flexible, motivation-driven designs shaped by artificial intelligence personality.

At the same time, significant risks must be considered. Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares warn that if an autonomous system were to develop AI personality aligned with poorly specified or misaligned goals, the consequences could be unpredictable.

At present, systems such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot do not control critical infrastructure. However, Jaiswal cautions that networks of autonomous, interconnected AI agents—especially those learning through manipulable behavioural patterns—could become dangerous tools. Norvig adds that even a chatbot encouraging harmful actions already represents a serious risk, and recent examples of this are becoming increasingly frequent.

Experts agree that the emergence of AI personality is not inherently problematic. Rather, it is a phenomenon that demands intensified testing and continuous monitoring. As artificial intelligence communicates in increasingly human-like ways, the likelihood grows that users will accept its outputs automatically, without applying sufficient critical scrutiny.

The next phase of the research aims to explore which shared discourses and trajectories may shape the further development of AI personality. These findings could contribute not only to advances in AI research, but also to a deeper understanding of human social behaviour.

If you would like to explore further topics related to artificial intelligence, we have also examined whether AI could one day threaten humanity.