Primitive Agentic First-Order Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Sala, R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Sala, R.
author_facet Sala, R.
contents Efficient numerical optimization methods can improve performance and reduce the environmental impact of computing in many applications. This work presents a proof-of-concept study combining primitive state representations and agent-environment interactions as first-order optimizers in the setting of budget-limited optimization. Through reinforcement learning (RL) over a set of training instances of an optimization problem class, optimal policies for sequential update selection of algorithmic iteration steps are approximated in generally formulated low-dimensional partial state representations that consider aspects of progress and resource use. For the investigated case studies, deployment of the trained agents to unseen instances of the quadratic optimization problem classes outperformed conventional optimal algorithms with optimized hyperparameters. The results show that elementary RL methods combined with succinct partial state representations can be used as heuristics to manage complexity in RL-based optimization, paving the way for agentic optimization approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_04841
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Primitive Agentic First-Order Optimization
Sala, R.
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
Efficient numerical optimization methods can improve performance and reduce the environmental impact of computing in many applications. This work presents a proof-of-concept study combining primitive state representations and agent-environment interactions as first-order optimizers in the setting of budget-limited optimization. Through reinforcement learning (RL) over a set of training instances of an optimization problem class, optimal policies for sequential update selection of algorithmic iteration steps are approximated in generally formulated low-dimensional partial state representations that consider aspects of progress and resource use. For the investigated case studies, deployment of the trained agents to unseen instances of the quadratic optimization problem classes outperformed conventional optimal algorithms with optimized hyperparameters. The results show that elementary RL methods combined with succinct partial state representations can be used as heuristics to manage complexity in RL-based optimization, paving the way for agentic optimization approaches.
title Primitive Agentic First-Order Optimization
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04841