What AI researchers can learn from the self-assembling brain

Welcome to AI book reviews, a series of posts that explore the latest literature on artificial intelligence. The history of artificial intelligence is filled with theories and attempts to study and replicate the workings and structure of the brain. Symbolic AI systems tried to copy the brain's behavior through rule-based modules. Deep neural networks are designed after the neural activation patterns and wiring of the brain. But one idea that hasn't gotten enough attention from the AI community is how the brain creates itself, argues Peter Robin Hiesinger, Professor of Neurobiology at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin).