Ian Cheng (born 1984) is an artist based in New York. Since 2012, Cheng has produced a series of simulations exploring an agent’s capacity to deal with an ever-changing environment. These works culminated in the Emissaries trilogy, which introduced a narrative agent whose motivation to enact a story was set into conflict with the open-ended chaos of the simulation. He is the creator of BOB (Bag of Beliefs), an AI-driven creature whose personality, body, and life story evolve across exhibitions. Recently, Cheng directed Life After BOB, a 50min real-time anime exploring human-AI symbiosis. He is the author of Emissary's Guide To Worlding, a book exploring the psychology and techniques of creating living autonomous worlds. Cheng is the founder of Opponent, a new company building animal-level AI agents for kids and families.