The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution

In episode 41 of The Gradient Podcast, Andrey Kurenkov speaks to Professor Jeff Clune.

Jeff is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia and a Faculty Member of the Vector Institute. Previously, he was a Research Team Leader at OpenAI and before that a Senior Research Manager and founding member of Uber AI Labs, and prior to that he was an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Wyoming.

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Outline:

(00:00) Intro
(01:05) Path into AI
(08:05) Studying biology with simulations
(10:30) Overview of genetic algorithms
(14:00) Evolving gaits with genetic algorithms
(20:00) Quality-Diversity Algorithms
(27:00) Evolving Soft Robots
(32:15) Genetic algorithms for studying Evolution
(39:30) Modularity for Catastrophic Forgetting
(45:15) Curiosity for Learning Diverse Skills
(51:15) Evolving Environments 
(58:3) The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution
(1:04:28) Hobbies Outside of Research
(1:07:25) Outro