  We describe a biologically-inspired research agenda with parallel tracks
aimed at AI and AI safety. The bottom-up component consists of building a
sequence of biophysically realistic simulations of simple organisms such as the
nematode $Caenorhabditis$ $elegans$, the fruit fly $Drosophila$ $melanogaster$,
and the zebrafish $Danio$ $rerio$ to serve as platforms for research into AI
algorithms and system architectures. The top-down component consists of an
approach to value alignment that grounds AI goal structures in neuropsychology,
broadly considered. Our belief is that parallel pursuit of these tracks will
inform the development of value-aligned AI systems that have been inspired by
embodied organisms with sensorimotor integration. An important set of side
benefits is that the research trajectories we describe here are grounded in
long-standing intellectual traditions within existing research communities and
funding structures. In addition, these research programs overlap with
significant contemporary themes in the biological and psychological sciences
such as data/model integration and reproducibility.
