By Rob Brooks
Publication Date: 2026-04-30 03:30:00
What happens when natural selection, the most powerful process driving change in the world, shapes artificial intelligence (AI), perhaps the most powerful technology humanity has yet invented?
Maybe we’ll find out soon.
According to a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we are entering the era of “evolvable AI” – AI systems that can evolve. This, in turn, could lead to a major transition in evolution.
How big is “major”? Well, in almost 4 billion years there have only been eight or maybe just seven other major transitions. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
The ingredients for evolution
Neither DNA nor cells nor biological life are required for evolution. All that is needed is replicable information and a source of variation that affects how successfully the information can be replicated.
When these conditions exist, evolution occurs regardless of whether anyone intended it to happen or not.
Modern AI systems already…