ExLLM: Experience-Enhanced LLM Optimization for Molecular Design and Beyond

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ran, Nian, Wang, Yue, Zhang, Xiaoyuan, Li, Zhongzheng, Ran, Qingsong, Li, Wenhao, Allmendinger, Richard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ran, Nian
Wang, Yue
Zhang, Xiaoyuan
Li, Zhongzheng
Ran, Qingsong
Li, Wenhao
Allmendinger, Richard
author_facet Ran, Nian
Wang, Yue
Zhang, Xiaoyuan
Li, Zhongzheng
Ran, Qingsong
Li, Wenhao
Allmendinger, Richard
contents Molecular design involves an enormous and irregular search space, where traditional optimizers such as Bayesian optimization, genetic algorithms, and generative models struggle to leverage expert knowledge or handle complex feedback. Recently, LLMs have been used as optimizers, achieving promising results on benchmarks such as PMO. However, existing approaches rely only on prompting or extra training, without mechanisms to handle complex feedback or maintain scalable memory. In particular, the common practice of appending or summarizing experiences at every query leads to redundancy, degraded exploration, and ultimately poor final outcomes under large-scale iterative search. We introduce ExLLM (Experience-Enhanced LLM optimization), an LLM-as-optimizer framework with three components: (1) a compact, evolving experience snippet tailored to large discrete spaces that distills non-redundant cues and improves convergence at low cost; (2) a simple yet effective k-offspring scheme that widens exploration per call and reduces orchestration cost; and (3) a lightweight feedback adapter that normalizes objectives for selection while formatting constraints and expert hints for iteration. ExLLM sets new state-of-the-art results on PMO and generalizes strongly in our setup, it sets records on circle packing and stellarator design, and yields consistent gains across additional domains requiring only a task-description template and evaluation functions to transfer.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_12845
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ExLLM: Experience-Enhanced LLM Optimization for Molecular Design and Beyond
Ran, Nian
Wang, Yue
Zhang, Xiaoyuan
Li, Zhongzheng
Ran, Qingsong
Li, Wenhao
Allmendinger, Richard
Machine Learning
Molecular design involves an enormous and irregular search space, where traditional optimizers such as Bayesian optimization, genetic algorithms, and generative models struggle to leverage expert knowledge or handle complex feedback. Recently, LLMs have been used as optimizers, achieving promising results on benchmarks such as PMO. However, existing approaches rely only on prompting or extra training, without mechanisms to handle complex feedback or maintain scalable memory. In particular, the common practice of appending or summarizing experiences at every query leads to redundancy, degraded exploration, and ultimately poor final outcomes under large-scale iterative search. We introduce ExLLM (Experience-Enhanced LLM optimization), an LLM-as-optimizer framework with three components: (1) a compact, evolving experience snippet tailored to large discrete spaces that distills non-redundant cues and improves convergence at low cost; (2) a simple yet effective k-offspring scheme that widens exploration per call and reduces orchestration cost; and (3) a lightweight feedback adapter that normalizes objectives for selection while formatting constraints and expert hints for iteration. ExLLM sets new state-of-the-art results on PMO and generalizes strongly in our setup, it sets records on circle packing and stellarator design, and yields consistent gains across additional domains requiring only a task-description template and evaluation functions to transfer.
title ExLLM: Experience-Enhanced LLM Optimization for Molecular Design and Beyond
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.12845