{"id":1063,"date":"2026-03-16T17:27:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/?p=1063"},"modified":"2026-03-29T11:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:24:54","slug":"engineering-instinct-in-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/?p=1063","title":{"rendered":"Engineering \u201cInstinct\u201d in AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reefwing_High_tech_robotic_spider_spinning_a_web._Ultra_reali_d1c27ec6-86d5-49ae-822a-98a298f4c3d3_3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reefwing_High_tech_robotic_spider_spinning_a_web._Ultra_reali_d1c27ec6-86d5-49ae-822a-98a298f4c3d3_3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1064\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reefwing_High_tech_robotic_spider_spinning_a_web._Ultra_reali_d1c27ec6-86d5-49ae-822a-98a298f4c3d3_3.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reefwing_High_tech_robotic_spider_spinning_a_web._Ultra_reali_d1c27ec6-86d5-49ae-822a-98a298f4c3d3_3-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reefwing_High_tech_robotic_spider_spinning_a_web._Ultra_reali_d1c27ec6-86d5-49ae-822a-98a298f4c3d3_3-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reefwing_High_tech_robotic_spider_spinning_a_web._Ultra_reali_d1c27ec6-86d5-49ae-822a-98a298f4c3d3_3-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"e08f\"><em>Across species, evolution \u201cpre-installs\u201d compact neural programs that deliver&nbsp;<\/em><strong><em>immediate, reliable behaviors<\/em><\/strong><em>&nbsp;(standing, pecking, web-building) with minimal learning. What are the implications for designing AI?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"9bc3\">The current approach to AI has a fundamental weakness: it\u2019s incredibly hungry for data and experience. Today\u2019s AI models start as a&nbsp;<em>tabula rasa<\/em>, or \u201cblank slate,\u201d and require massive datasets to learn even basic concepts about the world. They are brittle, struggle with common sense, and lack the efficiency that even a newborn animal displays moments after birth. A newly hatched sea turtle instinctively knows to crawl toward the ocean; a spider can weave a complex web without ever being taught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"f433\">This innate, pre-programmed knowledge is instinct. And by overlooking it, the AI field may be missing a crucial piece of the intelligence puzzle. Instead of just building better cortexes, perhaps we need to look deeper into the older, more foundational parts of the brain; the parts that give rise to instinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pub.towardsai.net\/engineering-instinct-in-ai-c083f0e44147\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Across species, evolution \u201cpre-installs\u201d compact neural programs that deliver&nbsp;immediate, reliable behaviors&nbsp;(standing, pecking, web-building) with minimal learning. What are the implications for designing AI? The current approach to AI has a fundamental weakness: it\u2019s incredibly hungry for data and experience. Today\u2019s AI models start as a&nbsp;tabula rasa, or \u201cblank slate,\u201d and require massive datasets to learn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49,45,6],"tags":[69],"class_list":{"0":"post-1063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ai","7":"category-embedded","8":"category-title-post","9":"tag-embedded-ai","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefwing.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}