arXiv — Machine Learning · · 3 min read

Searching the Space of Feed-Forward Neural-Network Weight-Update Rules with Fixed Depth Symbolic Regression

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Computer Science > Machine Learning

arXiv:2607.21855 (cs)
[Submitted on 23 Jul 2026]

Title:Searching the Space of Feed-Forward Neural-Network Weight-Update Rules with Fixed Depth Symbolic Regression

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Abstract:We investigate whether symbolic regression can discover explicit neural network weight-update rules that outperform standard hand-designed optimizers on small symbolic regression benchmarks. Candidate update rules are represented as fixed-depth symbolic expressions over operands derived from common optimizers, including gradient, momentum, adaptive-gradient, and moment-estimate quantities. Across 30 benchmark/neural network combinations, the symbolic regression procedure found an update rule outperforming the best hyperparameter-tuned established optimizer in 25 cases, with an aggregate MSE reduction of 44.47\% over the improved cases. The discovered rules do not all share a single common symbolic form, but many combine adaptive normalization, momentum-like quantities, nonlinear transformations, and rational expressions. These results suggest that symbolic regression can serve as a lightweight mechanism for discovering compact optimizer variants, while also highlighting the need for larger-scale validation.
Comments: 15 pages, 1 figure, 8 tables
Subjects: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
Cite as: arXiv:2607.21855 [cs.LG]
  (or arXiv:2607.21855v1 [cs.LG] for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.21855
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Edward Finkelstein [view email]
[v1] Thu, 23 Jul 2026 22:49:51 UTC (38 KB)
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