Book Image

Hands-On Genetic Algorithms with Python

By : Eyal Wirsansky
Book Image

Hands-On Genetic Algorithms with Python

By: Eyal Wirsansky

Overview of this book

Genetic algorithms are a family of search, optimization, and learning algorithms inspired by the principles of natural evolution. By imitating the evolutionary process, genetic algorithms can overcome hurdles encountered in traditional search algorithms and provide high-quality solutions for a variety of problems. This book will help you get to grips with a powerful yet simple approach to applying genetic algorithms to a wide range of tasks using Python, covering the latest developments in artificial intelligence. After introducing you to genetic algorithms and their principles of operation, you'll understand how they differ from traditional algorithms and what types of problems they can solve. You'll then discover how they can be applied to search and optimization problems, such as planning, scheduling, gaming, and analytics. As you advance, you'll also learn how to use genetic algorithms to improve your machine learning and deep learning models, solve reinforcement learning tasks, and perform image reconstruction. Finally, you'll cover several related technologies that can open up new possibilities for future applications. By the end of this book, you'll have hands-on experience of applying genetic algorithms in artificial intelligence as well as in numerous other domains.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Basics of Genetic Algorithms
4
Section 2: Solving Problems with Genetic Algorithms
9
Section 3: Artificial Intelligence Applications of Genetic Algorithms
14
Section 4: Related Technologies

Hyperparameters in machine learning

In Chapter 7, Enhancing Machine Learning Models using Feature Selection, we described supervised learning as the programmatic process of adjusting (or tuning) the internal parameters of a model to produce the desired outputs in response to given inputs. To make this happen, each type of supervised learning model is accompanied by a learning algorithm that iteratively adjusts its internal parameters during the learning (or training) phase.

However, most models have another set of parameters that are set before the learning takes place. These are called hyperparameters, and affect the way the learning is done. The following image illustrates the two types of parameters:

Hyperparameter tuning of a machine learning model

Usually, the hyperparameters have default values that will take effect if we don't specifically set them. For example,...