Genetic Programming

The goal of getting computers to automatically solve problems is central to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the broad area encompassed by what Turing called “machine intelligence„ (

Turing, 1948

,

1950

). In his talk entitled

AI: Where It Has Been and Where It Is Going

, machine learning pioneer Arthur Samuel stated the main goal of the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence: [T]he aim [is]... to get machines to exhibit behavior, which if done by humans, would be assumed to involve the use of intelligence. (Samuel, 1983) Genetic programming is a systematic method for getting computers to automatically solve a problem starting from a high-level statement of what needs to be done. Genetic programming is a domain-independent method that genetically breeds a population of computer programs to solve a problem. Specifically, genetic programming iteratively transforms a population of computer programs into a new generation of programs by applying analogs of naturally occurring genetic operations. This process is illustrated in Figure 5.1.