Robots Evolve And Learn How to Lie

Robots can evolve to communicate with each other, to help, and even to deceive each other

outfitted robots with light sensors

placed them in habitats furnished with glowing “food sources” and patches of “poison” that recharged or drained their batteries.

neural circuitry was programmed with just 30 “genes,” elements of software code that determined how much they sensed light and how they responded when they did

robots were initially programmed both to light up randomly and to move randomly when they sensed light.

recombined the genes of those that proved fittest—those that had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source.

The resulting code (with a little mutation added in the form of a random change) was downloaded into the robots

in essence, offspring

released into their artificial habitat

By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to communicate—lighting up, in three out of four colonies, to alert the others when they’d found food or poison