Neuroevolution: Harnessing Creativity in AI Agent Design
by Sebastian Risi, Yujin Tang, David Ha, and Risto Miikkulainen
The online version of the book is now freely available in an open-access HTML format. The print edition will be released later in 2026.
The power of #Drosophila genetics to study neuronal evolution:
"We then modified Drosophila retinas to have butterfly-like transcription factor expression, causing recruitment of an additional R7. The two R7s make independent stochastic choices, like butterflies, leading to three stochastically distributed ommatidial types instead of two."
And then they show how the excess of neurons that would otherwise die or repeat existing circuit motifs is repurposed to accommodate the extra photoreceptors, configuring retinal circuits like in the buttefly.
"Sensory receptor expansion and neural accommodation in butterfly color vision", Gao et al. 2025.
Here's a link to an AI I created that plays Donkey Kong Country https://peertube.mastodon.host/videos/watch/9b0b91f4-b469-421a-ad5f-795a5dff434d
#ai #neuralevolution #neat #openai
