Microsoft Principal Scientist Adrian de Wynter built a working neural network using goats, bridges, and ice ramps in Age of Empires II's map editor—a real project that's both absurdist and pointed. The experiment critiques how AI researchers and the public anthropomorphize language models: if you think ChatGPT is sentient based on its outputs, logically you'd have to grant consciousness to the game mechanics producing goat behavior. De Wynter analyzed 315 AI research papers and found over half already assume LLMs have human-like qualities without solid justification, making his goat-powered model an effective illustration of how easily we project consciousness onto systems that are just following rules.