Evolutionary Algorithms for Atari
Summary
Evolutionary algorithms, particularly Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP), have shown promise in developing simple yet effective programs for playing Atari games. This approach utilizes a specialized function set that incorporates matrix operations and image processing capabilities, allowing for the emergence of controller behavior. The evolved programs are notably compact but demonstrate competitive performance against state-of-the-art methods on the Atari benchmark set, often with reduced training time. A key advantage of this method is the ability to analyze the best-evolved individuals, revealing simple but powerful strategies for gameplay. This research highlights the potential of evolutionary techniques in creating efficient and interpretable AI agents for game-playing tasks, offering an alternative to more complex deep learning approaches.