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Genetic Algorithms: Evolving Human Faces
- jobeirne 17y agoThis is not a genetic algorithm; this is a steady-state-ish (MU, LAMBDA) evolution strategies algorithm. Genetic algorithms imply crossover, not simply mutation. People have gotta stop referring to population-based methods of stochastic search as "genetic algorithms".
- lbrandy 17y agoOur algorithm is also not a "face detector". It's a feature-based machine-learned image classifier that was trained on faces and non-faces. However, when speaking to those presumably without a background in machine learning, I think "face detector" conveys more information. Also, the title "Steady-state-ish (MU, LAMBDA) evolution strategies algorithm, and/or population-based stochastic search: Evolving Human Faces" is too long.
- jobeirne 17y agoI apologize for the attitude, and it wasn't directed at you, but it's driving me crazy how prevalent the confusion is as to what a genetic algorithm actually is.
- jobeirne 17y agoAlso, this doesn't seem to be an apt analogy; I'm no expert on machine learning (certainly) but it seems to me that "face detector" is simply a catchy abstraction that does not necessarily contradict the underlying technicalities of your production. My issue with your titling "Genetic Algorithms" is that it is not simply a more convenient, abstract way of expressing what you did: it is in fact a contradiction of terms with the underlying technical details of what you did.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoThis is some definition of "gotta" with which I was not previously acquainted. People will use technical terms in a manner that is not technically accurate. You can't stop them, it's part of the way language and communication works. It's annoying, it's inaccurate, it's occasionally misleading, but it's inevitable.
- sep332 17y agoYeah, this is basically just Newton's method of approximation, seeded with a random initial value. It will eventually converge on a local maximum defined by the facial recognition function.
- gambling8nt 17y agoThis is not Newton's method; it is a random walk with pruning. Newton's method is a very specific way of finding roots of a function.
- badger7 17y agoYour point is lost under a sea of attitude. Shame. @lbrandy: Awesome, if slightly mislabelled, work.
- lbrandy 17y agoI did a little research to make sure he was right, and I've convinced myself that he is, so I've added an update at the top to correct it.
- ccc3 17y agoI'm not sure you're right about that. I think of a genetic algorithm as an optimization algorithm that imitates a genetic reproductive process. This algorithm seems to be a rough approximation of binary fission instead of sexual reproduction. Still a genetic process, just a different one than is typically used.