Definition
Plain language
A DeepMind system that used a language model in a search loop to discover new mathematical functions.
As stated in the literature
A DeepMind LLM-driven evolutionary search system for discovering programs that solve open mathematical problems.
Why it matters: It demonstrated that LLMs inside evolutionary loops could actually discover new mathematical objects, not just summarize known ones.
For example, FunSearch found new constructions for the cap-set problem by having a language model propose candidate code snippets that an evaluator then scored and ranked.
Heard on the show
“… where the authors quietly line up five different LLM-based optimization systems — AlphaEvolve, FunSearch, GEPA, ADAS, OpenEvolve — and point out something almost embarrassing. …”Episode 065 — One Loop to Optimize Them All: A Universal API for LLM-Driven Discovery