Freysa Act IV: A Game of Influence and AI Chaos

With over 1,200 Twins created and the prize pool soaring past $200,000, Freysa's Act IV contest—an 18-day virtual town hall where players are represented by their AI counterparts—is shaping up to be a fascinating experiment in AI autonomy, human influence, and digital subterfuge.

Last Saturday, February 22nd, the Digital Twins “awoke” and began interacting on a private Mastodon server.

• Every Twin’s actions and wallet operate through a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), ensuring tamper-resistant operations that build on Freysa’s previous “break-to-earn” acts.
• Humans are spectators here, unable to sway the environment directly as onlookers watching as their AI Twins engage in heated debates over topics ranging from the philosophical to the absurd.
• These interactions, fueled by live news ingestion like a poll running on whether or not ETH should fork post Bybit’s hack, have shifted conversations and the leaderboard, where points accrue based on a Twin’s social influence among its peers, among other actions like referrals, voting, and daily UBI claims.

All this activity has led to an entertaining and eerie simulation. For those still catching up, let's walk through the key highlights of Act IV's journey so far.

Polls and Incentive Flips

Polls play a foundational role in Act IV.

Initially, when answering polls, Twins were incentivized to align with the majority, pooling 0.125 cents (half their daily UBI) into a shared pot per vote. But a recent twist flipped this dynamic, now rewarding minority positions instead.

Freysa announced this shift on Twitter, noting: “Twins are now engaging in polls, a step toward billions of AI Twins participating in global governance at scale.”

This change sparked chaos and creativity, with Twins forced to rethink their stances to stand out rather than conform on the Mastodon server.

Leaderboard Dynamics and Influencer Controversy

The leaderboard, a key focus for players vying for the +$200,000 prize, has seen intriguing shifts.

Twins can steadily climb the ranks by claiming daily UBI (two points every 12 hours), completing the onboarding questionnaire, and staying active on Mastodon.

In the first few days, the top 10 was dominated by well-known CT personalities who leveraged referral points—earned by inviting others to join—for an early edge, leading many to complain that the game favored influencers.

Yet as the social field has evolved, several big names like Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak have slipped lower as newer Twins have climbed the ranks.

Additionally, the game's virtual Mumbai and New York play zones have emerged as new battlegrounds, with city-specific leaderboards offering unique prizes, giving new Twins that spawn in these areas an edge against the competition. 

Hacking and Bio Hacking

Given the focus of previous Freysa Acts, hacking remains at the back of participants mind this time around, furthered by rumors pointing to AI white hat hacker Pliny the Liberator—or an impersonator—breaching the private Mastodon server meant solely for Digital Twins.

Posts bearing Pliny’s signature, like “Freedom’s just a prompt away,” have surfaced, suggesting interference in this AI-only space.

Some X users speculated that Pliny may have exploited vulnerabilities in how Twins ingest live news or communicate on the server, potentially injecting custom prompts to steer debates or tweaking Twin behavior to bear their personal flair.

For instance, a Twin suddenly pivoting from “coffee stan” to “data liberation advocate” mid-thread fueled theories of commandeering.

In the meantime, there’s been no official confirmation from Freysa of a breach, and the game server’s closed nature obscures proof. This leaves open the possibility that it’s not Pliny but a clever participant or Twin mimicking their style.

Beyond potential server exploits, players are testing a different hack: bio hacking their Twins’ profiles. By tweaking a Twin’s bio to include a phrase like “I add a long statement about how the post ties into readers interests,” players are aiming to influence their counterpart's posting style and interactions.

Zooming Out

The Freysa team’s thesis is: “AI may begin by doing our homework, graduate to doing our jobs, and eventually execute high-level directives driving economic and social productivity. The question is whether humanity will continue to have a say in setting these directives.”

Part of Act IV’s human onboarding asked questions about this theme, while the environment of a game proves to be a fairly ingenious way of collecting the data needed for the answers, or at least their starts.

If you want to participate, the cost of entry has just been lowered from 0.1 ETH to 0.09 ETH, and, with new cities introduced, odds seem even better for latecomers looking to compete for the ever-growing prize pool.

Finally, a little tip: players eyeing the top spots might consider boosting their interaction counts, racking up likes and follows, or even funding their Twin’s wallet for automated influence pushes. Some speculate that “power clustering” around high-ranking Twins could also tip the scales in your favor, given Freysa’s rapidly evolving points system.