nowfound

AI · July 27, 2026

W1

Watch 14-Byte AI "brains" attempt to solve a 2D maze (Its hard)

Hey HackerNews, I built this project over the last few weeks as a palette cleanser from a failed game launch. I wanted to learn a bit about AI/Neural-Networks and naively thought I could build a tiny maze-solving AI in a weekend with a 100% solve rate. Well - I couldn't, but I got pretty close. 14 Bytes total model size, and a 96.5% solve rate on unseen mazes. Trained across 46 phases experimenting with different ideas to improve the model (better performance, smaller size). Its quite fun to watch the model attempt to solve the maze, when they fail its usually due to getting stuck in a…

Watch 14-Byte AI "brains" attempt to solve a 2D maze (Its hard) launched on July 27, 2026 with 25 votes, #773 of 24,623 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was not reachable when checked in September 2026.

Visit con-dog.github.io ↗Alternativestop 3% of July 2026

In plain words

This project demonstrates tiny neural networks trained to navigate 2D mazes using only local sensory input. The creator built 14-byte AI models across 46 experimental phases, achieving a 96.5% solve rate on unseen mazes without access to map data or external memory. The project is designed for those interested in neural networks and AI fundamentals, showing how extremely compact models can learn navigation tasks and where they typically fail, such as getting caught in loops.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hey HackerNews, I built this project over the last few weeks as a palette cleanser from a failed game launch. I wanted to learn a bit about AI/Neural-Networks and naively thought I could build a tiny maze-solving AI in a weekend with a 100% solve rate. Well - I couldn't, but I got pretty close. 14 Bytes total…

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