Researcher goes all-in on deep RL virtual animals as a neuroscience substrate
andpru · x · 2026-11-05
A neuroscience researcher says they're going all-in on studying "virtual animals" built with deep RL. Their argument: virtual animals can develop complex emergent behaviors and circuitry, live in controllable complex ecosystems instead of simplified lab setups while remaining analytically tractable, and allow circuit dissection to uncover interesting computations. The poster asks whether such tools serve as hypothesis generators for real brains, or whether the interest lies in understanding the virtual animals themselves.
Related event: Neuroscientists Bet on Deep RL "Virtual Animals" for Brain Research(5 posts)→
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