Foundations of a developmental design paradigm for integrated continual learning, deliberative behavior, and comprehensibility

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TETCI.2025.3628744

Inherent limitations of contemporary machine learning systems in crucial areas—importantly in continual learning, information reuse, comprehensibility, and integration with deliberate behavior—are receiving increasing attention. To address these challenges, we introduce a system design, fueled by a novel learning approach conceptually grounded in principles of evolutionary developmental biology, that overcomes key limitations of current methods. Our design comprises three core components: The Modeller, a gradient-free learning mechanism inherently capable of continual learning and structural adaptation; a planner for goal-directed action over learned models; and a behavior encapsulation mechanism that can decompose complex behaviors into a hierarchical structure. We demonstrate proof-of-principle operation in a simple test environment. Additionally, we extend our modeling framework to higher-dimensional network-structured spaces, using MNIST for a shape detection task. Our framework shows promise in overcoming multiple major limitations of contemporary machine learning systems simultaneously and in an organic manner.