Evolving recurrent networks using genetic programming

Abstract

A system and method for evolving a recurrent neural network (RNN) that solves a provided problem includes: a memory storing a candidate RNN genome database having a pool of candidate RNN nodes, each of the candidate RNN nodes representing a neural network as a unique tree structure; an assembly module that assembles N RNN layers; an evolution module that evolves the H candidate RNN nodes of each respective RNN layer; a training module that trains the candidate RNN nodes of each of the N RNN layers using training data; an evaluation module that evaluates a performance of each candidate RNN node of each RNN layer using validation data and assigns a fitness value to each candidate RNN node; a competition module that forms an elitist pool of candidate RNN nodes in dependence on their assigned fitness values; and a solution harvesting module providing for deployment of RNN layers instantiated with candidate RNN nodes from the elitist pool.