No shared words, no dictionary — just two agents that negotiate a private code from scratch and hit ~97%.
TL;DR: Give two AI agents a reason to coordinate and they'll make up their own language — one we never designed. I built the tiniest version: two agents, zero shared words, and from "did we understand each other?" alone they invent a private code and hit ~97%. Runs on a laptop, no API key.
The game
A sender sees a secret object (say 🍎) and holds up one of a few random shapes: ◇ △ ○ ☆ □. A receiver sees only the shape and guesses the object. Right guess → both remember that pairing. No dictionary, no translator. This is the classic Lewis signaling game — the cleanest way to watch language appear from nothing.
The 10-second version
