# Offline Multi-Objective Optimization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.03722 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03722/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 50 of its 90 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Jun 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 50)

- [D4RL: Datasets for Deep Data-Driven Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07219/) (2020)
- [Gradient Surgery for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.06782/) (2020)
- [A Survey on Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.08114/) (2017)
- [GradNorm: Gradient Normalization for Adaptive Loss Balancing in Deep Multitask Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.02257/) (2017)
- [Once-for-All: Train One Network and Specialize it for Efficient Deployment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.09791/) (2019)
- [NAS-Bench-201: Extending the Scope of Reproducible Neural Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.00326/) (2020)
- [NAS-Bench-101: Towards Reproducible Neural Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.09635/) (2019)
- [Hierarchical Generation of Molecular Graphs using Structural Motifs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.03230/) (2020)
- [pymoo: Multi-objective Optimization in Python](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04504/) (2020)
- [AutoFormer: Searching Transformers for Visual Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.00651/) (2021)
- [Bayesian Optimization in a Billion Dimensions via Random Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.1942/) (2013)
- [Differentiable Expected Hypervolume Improvement for Parallel Multi-Objective Bayesian Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.05078/) (2020)
- [Parallel Bayesian Optimization of Multiple Noisy Objectives with Expected Hypervolume Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.08195/) (2021)
- [Accelerating Bayesian Optimization for Biological Sequence Design with Denoising Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12742/) (2022)
- [Multi-Objective GFlowNets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.12765/) (2022)
- [NATS-Bench: Benchmarking NAS Algorithms for Architecture Topology and Size](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.00437/) (2020)
- [Design-Bench: Benchmarks for Data-Driven Offline Model-Based Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.08450/) (2022)
- [Predictive Entropy Search for Multi-objective Bayesian Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.05467/) (2015)
- [Conservative Objective Models for Effective Offline Model-Based Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06882/) (2021)
- [HW-NAS-Bench:Hardware-Aware Neural Architecture Search Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10584/) (2021)
- [Model Inversion Networks for Model-Based Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.13464/) (2019)
- [A survey on high-dimensional Gaussian process modeling with application to Bayesian optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05040/) (2021)
- [Diffusion Models for Black-Box Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07180/) (2023)
- [HPO-B: A Large-Scale Reproducible Benchmark for Black-Box HPO based on OpenML](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06257/) (2021)
- [An Easy-to-use Real-world Multi-objective Optimization Problem Suite](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.12867/) (2020)
- [Few-Shot Bayesian Optimization with Deep Kernel Surrogates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.07667/) (2021)
- [Surrogate NAS Benchmarks: Going Beyond the Limited Search Spaces of Tabular NAS Benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.09777/) (2020)
- [NeoRL: A Near Real-World Benchmark for Offline Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.00714/) (2021)
- [Multi-objective Bayesian Optimization using Pareto-frontier Entropy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00127/) (2019)
- [Joint Entropy Search for Maximally-Informed Bayesian Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04771/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [ParetoFlow: Guided Flows in Multi-Objective Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03718/) (2024)
- [Offline Model-Based Optimization: Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17286/) (2025)
- [Offline Model-Based Optimization by Learning to Rank](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11502/) (2024)
- [Preference-Guided Diffusion for Multi-Objective Offline Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17299/) (2025)
- [Towards Universal Offline Black-Box Optimization via Learning Language Model Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07109/) (2025)
- [BBOPlace-Bench: Benchmarking Black-Box Optimization for Chip Placement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23472/) (2025)
- [FoMEMO: Towards Foundation Models for Expensive Multi-objective Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.03244/) (2025)
- [SPREAD: Sampling-based Pareto front Refinement via Efficient Adaptive Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21058/) (2025)
- [Pareto-Conditioned Diffusion Models for Offline Multi-Objective Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00737/) (2026)
- [Learning Design-Score Manifold to Guide Diffusion Models for Offline Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05680/) (2025)
- [The Offline-Frontier Shift: Diagnosing Distributional Limits in Generative Multi-Objective Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11126/) (2026)
- [Large Language Models as Amortized Pareto-Front Generators for Constrained Bi-Objective Convex Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12106/) (2026)
- [Rethinking Learnability in Offline Data-driven Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.01493/) (2026)
- [ParetoTransport: Generative Optimization by Mass Transport Toward The Pareto Front](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.07706/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Offline optimization aims to maximize a black-box objective function with a static dataset and has wide applications. In addition to the objective function being black-box and expensive to evaluate, numerous complex real-world problems entail optimizing multiple conflicting objectives, i.e., multi-objective optimization (MOO). Nevertheless, offline MOO has not progressed as much as offline single-objective optimization (SOO), mainly due to the lack of benchmarks like Design-Bench for SOO. To bridge this gap, we propose a first benchmark for offline MOO, covering a range of problems from synthetic to real-world tasks. This benchmark provides tasks, datasets, and open-source examples, which can serve as a foundation for method comparisons and advancements in offline MOO. Furthermore, we analyze how the current related methods can be adapted to offline MOO from four fundamental perspectives, including data, model architecture, learning algorithm, and search algorithm. Empirical results show improvements over the best value of the training set, demonstrating the effectiveness of offline MOO methods. As no particular method stands out significantly, there is still an open challenge in further enhancing the effectiveness of offline MOO. We finally discuss future challenges for offline MOO, with the hope of shedding some light on this emerging field. Our code is available at urlhttps://github.com/lamda-bbo/offline-moo.
