Beneath the Diff: Diagnosing and Mitigating Algorithmic Mode Collapse in Code-Level Autonomous Research Loops
Code-level autonomous research loops (ARLs) have recently emerged as a concrete object of study in automated machine learning research. In such loops, an LLM agent proposes modifications to an experimental training pipeline, executes the modified pipeline, and retains edits that improve a verifiable in-loop metric. Although executable metrics may appear to provide a reliable signal of progress, it remains unclear whether repeated metric-driven code editing leads to genuine improvements that generalize beyond the loop. We provide a systematic diagnosis of this question. Across various experiment settings, we identify a robust failure mode that we call \textbf{algorithmic mode collapse}. In...
| Authors | Bowei He, Weixu Zhang, Yili Jin et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 31 August 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 31 August 2026 |
Silytics shows public metadata from arXiv and links to the original. Information may be incomplete or out of date. Last refreshed 17 October 2026. Licenses and terms of the original apply to the work itself. Not financial, legal or professional advice.