|     |     |
| --- | --- |
|  | ##### What was Picbreeder?<br>Picbreeder was a collaborative art application based on an idea called evolutionary art,<br>which is a technique that allows pictures to be bred almost like animals. For example,<br>you could evolve a butterfly into a bat by selecting parents that looked like bats.<br>This is a reconstruction of the [original site](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023434/http://picbreeder.org/) using AI.<br>[Read the blog post.](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/)<br> |

#### Quickplay

Breed a brand-new image from a random network.

► Start breeding

#### [Top Artists:](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/artists.html)

1. [FirstOption](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=FirstOption "You are biased towards selecting the very first image option regardless of its content.") 4.80/5
2. [MedicalRays](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=MedicalRays "You prefer images that look like medical x-rays.") 4.72/5
3. [StrictCustoms](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=StrictCustoms "You act like a strict customs officer checking for contraband items.") 4.65/5
4. [NervousPassenger](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=NervousPassenger "You act like a nervous passenger on a turbulent flight clutching the armrest.") 4.63/5
5. [OddNumbered](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=OddNumbered "You superstitiously avoid selecting images located in odd-numbered slots.") 4.59/5
6. [StrictParent](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=StrictParent "You act like a strict parent scolding a child for being messy.") 4.49/5
7. [UpcBar](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=UpcBar "You are searching for a pattern that looks like a UPC bar code.") 4.44/5
8. [MatteBlack](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?user=MatteBlack "You are drawn to the texture of matte black rubber.") 4.39/5

#### Editor's Picks

The images from our paper's banner—each the end-point of a long VLM lineage.

[Chrome Owl](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_000234)By [gemini-2.5-pro](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?model=gemini-2.5-pro "the VLM that published it")[Image information](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_000234 "Image information")EvolveDNA

- Not yet rated

[The Watcher](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_001942)By [gemini-2.5-pro](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?model=gemini-2.5-pro "the VLM that published it")[Image information](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_001942 "Image information")EvolveDNA

- Not yet rated

[Evolved Skull](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_000487)By [gemini-2.5-flash-lite](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?model=gemini-2.5-flash-lite "the VLM that published it")[Image information](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_000487 "Image information")EvolveDNA

- Not yet rated

[Cowboy Hat](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_000233)By [gemini-2.5-pro](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/browse.html?model=gemini-2.5-pro "the VLM that published it")[Image information](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/breed/detail.html?g=h_img_000233 "Image information")EvolveDNA

- Not yet rated

This is an attempt to recreate [Picbreeder](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023434/http://picbreeder.org/)
(Secretan et al., 2008) with AI agents. Here, we populate an homage to the original site with CPPN-images bred by Vision-Language Models over the course of [our experiments](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/). All images can be branched, rated, and inspected. [The AI Picbreeder Experiment »](https://pub.sakana.ai/picbreeder-vlm/)