Large language models as surrogate models in evolutionary algorithms: A preliminary study

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable advancements across diverse domains, manifesting considerable capabilities in evolutionary computation, notably in generating new solutions and automating algorithm design. Surrogate-assisted selection plays a pivotal role in evolutionary algorithms (EAs), especially in addressing expensive optimization problems by reducing the number of real function evaluations. However, whether LLMs can serve as surrogate models remains an unknown. In this study, we propose a novel surrogate model based purely on LLM inference capabilities, eliminating the need for training. Specifically, we formulate model-assisted selection as a classification problem or a regression problem, utilizing LLMs to directly evaluate the quality of new solutions based on historical data. This involves predicting whether a solution is good or bad, or approximating its value. This approach is then integrated into EAs, termed LLM-assisted EA (LAEA). Detailed experiments compared the visualization results of 2D data from 9 mainstream LLMs, as well as their performance on 5-10 dimensional problems. The experimental results demonstrate that LLMs have significant potential as surrogate models in evolutionary computation, achieving performance comparable to traditional surrogate models only using inference. This work offers new insights into the application of LLMs in evolutionary computation. Code is available at: https://github.com/hhyqhh/LAEA.git.