Neural architecture search (NAS) finds high performing networks for a given task. Y et the results of NAS are fairly prosaic; they did not e.g.

The last few years have witnessed a surge in methods for symbolic regression, from advances in traditional evolutionary approaches to novel deep learning-based systems. Individual works typically focus on advancing the state-of-the-art for one particular class of solution strategies, and there have been few attempts to investigate the benefits of hybridizing or integrating multiple strategies. In this work, we identify five classes of symbolic regression solution strategies---recursive problem simplification, neural-guided search, large-scale pre-training, genetic programming, and linear models---and propose a strategy to hybridize them into a single modular, unified symbolic regression framework. Based on empirical evaluation using SRBench, a new community tool for benchmarking symbolic regression methods, our unified framework achieves state-of-the-art performance in its ability to (1) symbolically recover analytical expressions, (2) fit datasets with high accuracy, and (3) balance accuracy-complexity trade-offs, across 252 ground-truth and black-box benchmark problems, in both noiseless settings and across various noise levels. Finally, we provide practical use case-based guidance for constructing hybrid symbolic regression algorithms, supported by extensive, combinatorial ablation studies.

Inspired by biological evolution, we explain the rationality of Vision Transformer by analogy with the proven practical Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) and derive that both of them have consistent mathematical representation. Analogous to the dynamic local population in EA, we improve the existing transformer structure and propose a more efficient EAT model, and design task-related heads to deal with different tasks more flexibly. Moreover, we introduce the spatial-filling curve into the current vision transformer to sequence image data into a uniform sequential format. Thus we can design a unified EAT framework to address multi-modal tasks, separating the network architecture from the data format adaptation. Our approach achieves state-of-the-art results on the ImageNet classification task compared with recent vision transformer works while having smaller parameters and greater throughput. We further conduct multi-modal tasks to demonstrate the superiority of the unified EAT, \eg, Text-Based Image Retrieval, and our approach improves the rank-1 by +3.7 points over the baseline on the CSS dataset.

We study the task of replicating the functionality of black-box neural models, for which we only know the output class probabilities provided for a set of input images. We assume back-propagation through the black-box model is not possible and its training images are not available, e.g. the model could be exposed only through an API. In this context, we present a teacher-student framework that can distill the black-box (teacher) model into a student model with minimal accuracy loss. To generate useful data samples for training the student, our framework (i) learns to generate images on a proxy data set (with images and classes different from those used to train the black-box) and (ii) applies an evolutionary strategy to make sure that each generated data sample exhibits a high response for a specific class when given as input to the black box. Our framework is compared with several baseline and state-of-the-art methods on three benchmark data sets. The empirical evidence indicates that our model is superior to the considered baselines. Although our method does not back-propagate through the black-box network, it generally surpasses state-of-the-art methods that regard the teacher as a glass-box model.

We developed a new method PROTES for black-box optimization, which is based on the probabilistic sampling from a probability density function given in the low-parametric tensor train format. We tested it on complex multidimensional arrays and discretized multivariable functions taken, among others, from real-world applications, including unconstrained binary optimization and optimal control problems, for which the possible number of elements is up to $2^{1000}$. In numerical experiments, both on analytic model functions and on complex problems, PROTES outperforms popular discrete optimization methods (Particle Swarm Optimization, Covariance Matrix Adaptation, Differential Evolution, and others).

Chiral photonic metasurfaces provide unique capabilities for tailoring light-matter interactions, which are essential for next-generation photonic devices. Here, we report an advanced optimization framework that combines deep learning and evolutionary algorithms to significantly improve both the design and performance of chiral photonic nanostructures. Building on previous work utilizing a three-layer perceptron reinforced learning and stochastic evolutionary algorithm with decaying changes and mass extinction for chiral photonic optimization, our study introduces a refined pipeline featuring a two-output neural network architecture to reduce the trade-off between high chiral dichroism (CD) and reflectivity. Additionally, we use an improved fitness function, and efficient data augmentation techniques. A comparative analysis between a neural network (NN)-based approach and a genetic algorithm (GA) is presented for structures of different interface pattern depth, material combinations, and geometric complexity. We demonstrate a twice higher CD and the impact of both the corner number and the refractive index contrast at the example of a GaP/air and PMMA/air metasurface as a result of superior optimization performance. Additionally, a substantial increase in the number of structures explored within limited computational resources is highlighted, with tailored spectral reflectivity suggested by our electromagnetic simulations, paving the way for chiral mirrors applicable to polarization-selective light-matter interaction studies.

The reliance of organisations on computer networks is enabled by network programmability, which is typically achieved through Service Function Chaining. These chains virtualise network functions, link them, and programmatically embed them on networking infrastructure. Optimal embedding of Service Function Chains is an NP-hard problem, with three sub-problems, chain composition, virtual network function embedding, and link embedding, that have to be optimised simultaneously, rather than sequentially, for optimal results. Genetic Algorithms have been employed for this, but existing approaches either do not optimise all three sub-problems or do not optimise all three sub-problems simultaneously. We propose a Genetic Algorithm-based approach called GENESIS, which evolves three sine-function-activated Neural Networks, and funnels their output to a Gaussian distribution and an A* algorithm to optimise all three sub-problems simultaneously. We evaluate GENESIS on an emulator across 48 different data centre scenarios and compare its performance to two state-of-the-art Genetic Algorithms and one greedy algorithm. GENESIS produces an optimal solution for 100% of the scenarios, whereas the second-best method optimises only 71% of the scenarios. Moreover, GENESIS is the fastest among all Genetic Algorithms, averaging 15.84 minutes, compared to an average of 38.62 minutes for the second-best Genetic Algorithm.

Agentic AI systems built on large language models (LLMs) offer significant potential for automating complex workflows, from software development to customer support. However, LLM agents often underperform due to suboptimal configurations; poorly tuned prompts, tool descriptions, and parameters that typically require weeks of manual refinement. Existing optimization methods either are too complex for general use or treat components in isolation, missing critical interdependencies. We present ARTEMIS, a no-code evolutionary optimization platform that jointly optimizes agent configurations through semantically-aware genetic operators. Given only a benchmark script and natural language goals, ARTEMIS automatically discovers configurable components, extracts performance signals from execution logs, and evolves configurations without requiring architectural modifications. We evaluate ARTEMIS on four representative agent systems: the \emph{ALE Agent} for competitive programming on AtCoder Heuristic Contest, achieving a \textbf{$13.6\%$ improvement} in acceptance rate; the \emph{Mini-SWE Agent} for code optimization on SWE-Perf, with a statistically significant \textbf{10.1\% performance gain}; and the \emph{CrewAI Agent} for cost and mathematical reasoning on Math Odyssey, achieving a statistically significant \textbf{$36.9\%$ reduction} in the number of tokens required for evaluation. We also evaluate the \emph{MathTales-Teacher Agent} powered by a smaller open-source model (Qwen2.5-7B) on GSM8K primary-level mathematics problems, achieving a \textbf{22\% accuracy improvement} and demonstrating that ARTEMIS can optimize agents based on both commercial and local models.

The growing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) in various applications underscores the need for agents that can successfully navigate and adapt to an ever-changing, open-ended world. A key challenge is ensuring these AI agents are robust, excelling not only in familiar settings observed during training but also effectively generalising to previously unseen and varied scenarios. In this thesis, we harness methodologies from open-endedness and multi-agent learning to train and evaluate robust AI agents capable of generalising to novel environments, out-of-distribution inputs, and interactions with other co-player agents. We begin by introducing MiniHack, a sandbox framework for creating diverse environments through procedural content generation. Based on the game of NetHack, MiniHack enables the construction of new tasks for reinforcement learning (RL) agents with a focus on generalisation. We then present Maestro, a novel approach for generating adversarial curricula that progressively enhance the robustness and generality of RL agents in two-player zero-sum games. We further probe robustness in multi-agent domains, utilising quality-diversity methods to systematically identify vulnerabilities in state-of-the-art, pre-trained RL policies within the complex video game football domain, characterised by intertwined cooperative and competitive dynamics. Finally, we extend our exploration of robustness to the domain of LLMs. Here, our focus is on diagnosing and enhancing the robustness of LLMs against adversarial prompts, employing evolutionary search to generate a diverse range of effective inputs that aim to elicit undesirable outputs from an LLM. This work collectively paves the way for future advancements in AI robustness, enabling the development of agents that not only adapt to an ever-evolving world but also thrive in the face of unforeseen challenges and interactions.