Breaching the Bottleneck: Evolutionary Transition from Reward-Driven Learning to Reward-Agnostic Domain-Adapted Learning in Neuromodulated Neural Nets

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Main Authors: Arnold, Solvi, Suzuki, Reiji, Arita, Takaya, Yamazaki, Kimitoshi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Arnold, Solvi
Suzuki, Reiji
Arita, Takaya
Yamazaki, Kimitoshi
author_facet Arnold, Solvi
Suzuki, Reiji
Arita, Takaya
Yamazaki, Kimitoshi
contents Advanced biological intelligence learns efficiently from an information-rich stream of stimulus information, even when feedback on behaviour quality is sparse or absent. Such learning exploits implicit assumptions about task domains. We refer to such learning as Domain-Adapted Learning (DAL). In contrast, AI learning algorithms rely on explicit externally provided measures of behaviour quality to acquire fit behaviour. This imposes an information bottleneck that precludes learning from diverse non-reward stimulus information, limiting learning efficiency. We consider the question of how biological evolution circumvents this bottleneck to produce DAL. We propose that species first evolve the ability to learn from reward signals, providing inefficient (bottlenecked) but broad adaptivity. From there, integration of non-reward information into the learning process can proceed via gradual accumulation of biases induced by such information on specific task domains. This scenario provides a biologically plausible pathway towards bottleneck-free, domain-adapted learning. Focusing on the second phase of this scenario, we set up a population of NNs with reward-driven learning modelled as Reinforcement Learning (A2C), and allow evolution to improve learning efficiency by integrating non-reward information into the learning process using a neuromodulatory update mechanism. On a navigation task in continuous 2D space, evolved DAL agents show a 300-fold increase in learning speed compared to pure RL agents. Evolution is found to eliminate reliance on reward information altogether, allowing DAL agents to learn from non-reward information exclusively, using local neuromodulation-based connection weight updates only. Code available at github.com/aislab/dal.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_12631
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Breaching the Bottleneck: Evolutionary Transition from Reward-Driven Learning to Reward-Agnostic Domain-Adapted Learning in Neuromodulated Neural Nets
Arnold, Solvi
Suzuki, Reiji
Arita, Takaya
Yamazaki, Kimitoshi
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
I.2.6
Advanced biological intelligence learns efficiently from an information-rich stream of stimulus information, even when feedback on behaviour quality is sparse or absent. Such learning exploits implicit assumptions about task domains. We refer to such learning as Domain-Adapted Learning (DAL). In contrast, AI learning algorithms rely on explicit externally provided measures of behaviour quality to acquire fit behaviour. This imposes an information bottleneck that precludes learning from diverse non-reward stimulus information, limiting learning efficiency. We consider the question of how biological evolution circumvents this bottleneck to produce DAL. We propose that species first evolve the ability to learn from reward signals, providing inefficient (bottlenecked) but broad adaptivity. From there, integration of non-reward information into the learning process can proceed via gradual accumulation of biases induced by such information on specific task domains. This scenario provides a biologically plausible pathway towards bottleneck-free, domain-adapted learning. Focusing on the second phase of this scenario, we set up a population of NNs with reward-driven learning modelled as Reinforcement Learning (A2C), and allow evolution to improve learning efficiency by integrating non-reward information into the learning process using a neuromodulatory update mechanism. On a navigation task in continuous 2D space, evolved DAL agents show a 300-fold increase in learning speed compared to pure RL agents. Evolution is found to eliminate reliance on reward information altogether, allowing DAL agents to learn from non-reward information exclusively, using local neuromodulation-based connection weight updates only. Code available at github.com/aislab/dal.
title Breaching the Bottleneck: Evolutionary Transition from Reward-Driven Learning to Reward-Agnostic Domain-Adapted Learning in Neuromodulated Neural Nets
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
I.2.6
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12631