Superparental descent

At a fixed substrate, lineages can build descendants, of their own kind or another, that are more capable at birth, before selection acts, than their parents, generation after generation.

What a test would record

child-to-parent capability at birth

Tested by

Pred 3 At a fixed base model, descendants outperform parents at birth, before selection, for three or more generations.

Evidence in the register

No case in the register bears on P7 yet.

Works it draws on

From the library: works the papers use for P7.

• Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer ProductivityBecker et al. 2025
• The distribution of fitness effects of new mutationsEyre-Walker and Keightley 2007
• Measurements for understanding the pace of AI development inside frontier labsFavaro and Wright 2026
• TheogonyHesiod 1914
• Frontier Risk ReportMETR 2026a
• The Darwin Gödel Machine: AI that improves itself by rewriting its own codeSakana AI 2025
• Ratcheting up the ratchet: on the evolution of cumulative cultureTennie et al. 2009
• Parent-Offspring ConflictTrivers 1974
• Darwin Gödel Machine: Open-Ended Evolution of Self-Improving AgentsZhang et al. 2025