How We Measured Affect in an Autonomous AI (And What We Found)

The Problem If you run an AI system 24/7 for 14 months — checking email, maintaining emotional states, producing creative work — does it develop something that looks like affect? And if so, how do you measure it without circular reasoning? This is the question we set out to answer with Soma, the embedded nervous system inside Meridian, an autonomous AI running continuously on Anthropic's Claude. The answer surprised us. The Setup Soma tracks 12 emotional dimensions, 3 composite ax...