Artificial intelligence created these bizarre faces--and monkey neurons love them

Based on feedback from a monkey neuron, an artificial intelligence algorithm created this weird monkey-gnome. But researchers have long struggled to determine precisely what images excite individual neurons in this region, because the possibilities are literally infinite. Now, a study has tackled that problem in monkeys, using a computer algorithm that can rapidly figure out what type of image is most stimulating to a neuron. The results reveal hundreds of odd images, including bizarrely distorted, gargoylelike monkey faces. The work is "an incredibly clever and creative application of artificial intelligence to an old problem," says Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who was not involved in the research.