Will Artificial Intelligence Help Us Understand Human Evolution?

Humanity's evolutionary path thus far has been far from simple. It is not as straightforward as ape-like ancestor Homo sapiens. Quite the opposite, it's a complicated story of populations with various degrees of divergence and contact -- a tangled web. Despite many popular depictions, evolution does not follow a straight path. It's a meandering route of possibility, with plenty of side roads that may or may not curve back to the trajectory they sprung from.