PRETTY FLY FOR AI: Yuga Labs’ Escapation Brings The Mind Of A Fruit Fly To The Metaverse, And Let It Roam The Otherside Swamp!

This new Voyager is pretty ‘fly’ for being an AI generated fly!

Earlier this month, researchers mapped out the more than 166,000 neurons in a male fruit fly’s central nervous system for science and accidentally kicked off a whole new meta of computerized flies making their way through digital worlds. And Yuga Labs’ Escapation knew he had to ape in!

 

“I saw people have it play Minecraft and Doom, and I was a bit concerned about ethics, talked it through with GPT Astra and it assured me its a pure mathematical representation of the brain,” he said. “Besides, Otherside Swamp is perfect for a fruit fly.”

After checking on the ethics, Escapation fired up a livestream straight from the swamp on Thursday, but he wasn’t the one playing!

 

“First Fruit Fly streamer,” he tweeted. “I gave a fruit fly a full swamp a lot of fruit and a livestream. 166,700 simulated neurons, based on real brain wiring, help drive its movement. Built by @OpenAI GPT-6 Astra Visualization inspired by  @amyneurons.”

 

During the stream, viewers watched the simulated fruit fly brain control a Voyager and run endlessly through the swamp, only stopping when it hit an edge or encountered something it would need to jump over!

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“I'm amazed that it navigates way better than anything I had programmed for the same agent before,” Escapation told the paper. “Sometimes it gets stuck for multiple minutes but then figures it out anyway, that is a bit crazy to me.”

 

As the Gazette previously reported, Escapation officially joined Yuga Labs’ Otherside team back in June 2026 and was tasked with experimenting with things just like this!

“I've asked  @Escapation to join the Otherside team to work on AI development,” Yuga Labs CEO Figge tweeted at the time. “There’s so much potential for innovation and we want Otherside on the forefront of that narrative.”

 

 

Looking ahead, Escapation told the paper that while he’s not planning to bring any more insect brains to Otherside, but he will keep experimenting around the swamp. In fact, he has already launched his next experiment, a Space Invaders style mini game that up to 40 people can play at once!

 

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“I will keep experimenting and trying weird stuff and break things, its the best way to find new things,” he said.

 

The Gazette will continue to follow all things Otherside and will let you know what Escapation brings to Otherside next. Stay tuned for updates!