# An investigation on the use of Large Language Models for hyperparameter tuning in Evolutionary Algorithms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.02451 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.02451/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 5 Aug 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [A Systematic Survey on Large Language Models for Algorithm Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14716/) (2024)
- [Optuna vs Code Llama: Are LLMs a New Paradigm for Hyperparameter Tuning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06006/) (2025)
- [Deep Insights into Automated Optimization with Large Language Models and Evolutionary Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20848/) (2024)
- [A Systematic Survey on Large Language Models for Evolutionary Optimization: From Modeling to Solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.08269/) (2025)
- [LLMs for Cold-Start Cutting Plane Separator Configuration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12038/) (2024)
- [Mutation Without Variation: Convergence Dynamics in LLM-Driven Program Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05408/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Hyperparameter optimization is a crucial problem in Evolutionary Computation. In fact, the values of the hyperparameters directly impact the trajectory taken by the optimization process, and their choice requires extensive reasoning by human operators. Although a variety of self-adaptive Evolutionary Algorithms have been proposed in the literature, no definitive solution has been found. In this work, we perform a preliminary investigation to automate the reasoning process that leads to the choice of hyperparameter values. We employ two open-source Large Language Models (LLMs), namely Llama2-70b and Mixtral, to analyze the optimization logs online and provide novel real-time hyperparameter recommendations. We study our approach in the context of step-size adaptation for (1+1)-ES. The results suggest that LLMs can be an effective method for optimizing hyperparameters in Evolution Strategies, encouraging further research in this direction.