abstract = "This chapter pursues the insight that large language
models (LLMs) trained to generate code can vastly
improve the effectiveness of mutation operators applied
to programs in genetic programming (GP). Because such
LLMs benefit from training data that includes
sequential changes and modifications, they can
approximate likely changes that humans would make. To
highlight the breadth of implications of such evolution
through large models (ELM), in Evolution through Large
Models the main experiment ELM combined with MAP-Elites
generates hundreds of thousands of functional examples
of Python programs that output working ambulating
robots in the Sodarace domain, which the original LLM
had never seen in pretraining. These examples then help
to bootstrap training a new conditional language model
that can output the right walker for a particular
terrain. The ability to bootstrap new models that can
output appropriate artifacts for a given context in a
domain where zero training data was previously
available carries implications for open-endedness, deep
learning, and reinforcement learning Learning. These
implications are explored here in depth in the hope of
inspiring new directions of research now opened up by
ELM.",