Searching Search Spaces: Meta-evolving a Geometric Encoding for Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Kunze, Tarek, Templier, Paul, Wilson, Dennis G
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Kunze, Tarek
Templier, Paul
Wilson, Dennis G
author_facet Kunze, Tarek
Templier, Paul
Wilson, Dennis G
contents In evolutionary policy search, neural networks are usually represented using a direct mapping: each gene encodes one network weight. Indirect encoding methods, where each gene can encode for multiple weights, shorten the genome to reduce the dimensions of the search space and better exploit permutations and symmetries. The Geometric Encoding for Neural network Evolution (GENE) introduced an indirect encoding where the weight of a connection is computed as the (pseudo-)distance between the two linked neurons, leading to a genome size growing linearly with the number of genes instead of quadratically in direct encoding. However GENE still relies on hand-crafted distance functions with no prior optimization. Here we show that better performing distance functions can be found for GENE using Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) in a meta-evolution approach, hence optimizing the encoding to create a search space that is easier to exploit. We show that GENE with a learned function can outperform both direct encoding and the hand-crafted distances, generalizing on unseen problems, and we study how the encoding impacts neural network properties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_14019
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Searching Search Spaces: Meta-evolving a Geometric Encoding for Neural Networks
Kunze, Tarek
Templier, Paul
Wilson, Dennis G
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
I.2.6
In evolutionary policy search, neural networks are usually represented using a direct mapping: each gene encodes one network weight. Indirect encoding methods, where each gene can encode for multiple weights, shorten the genome to reduce the dimensions of the search space and better exploit permutations and symmetries. The Geometric Encoding for Neural network Evolution (GENE) introduced an indirect encoding where the weight of a connection is computed as the (pseudo-)distance between the two linked neurons, leading to a genome size growing linearly with the number of genes instead of quadratically in direct encoding. However GENE still relies on hand-crafted distance functions with no prior optimization. Here we show that better performing distance functions can be found for GENE using Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) in a meta-evolution approach, hence optimizing the encoding to create a search space that is easier to exploit. We show that GENE with a learned function can outperform both direct encoding and the hand-crafted distances, generalizing on unseen problems, and we study how the encoding impacts neural network properties.
title Searching Search Spaces: Meta-evolving a Geometric Encoding for Neural Networks
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
I.2.6
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14019