Sakana AI· Sakana models

Towards Automating Long-Horizon Algorithm Engineering for Hard Optimization Problems

We introduce ALE-Bench, a coding benchmark inspired by hard optimization problems whose true optima are computationally out of reach (e.g., NP-hard). This benchmark enabled the development of our new coding agent, ALE-Agent, designed to tackle hard optimization problems. In May 2025, ALE-Agent achieved 21st out of 1,000 human participants in a live AtCoder Heuristic Competition (AHC), marking a turning point for AI discovery of solutions to hard optimization problems with important real world applications. Summary To what extent can AI automate the discovery of algorithms for hard optimization problems ? This question represents AI’s next grand challenge for two reasons: (1) whether AI can optimize real-world industries, such as logistics and factory planning, power-grid balancing, and (2) whether AI can perform the long-horizon, creative reasoning needed to continuously improve answers for hard problems with no perfect solution, through trial and error. …

Announced

16 Jun 2025 15:00 UTC

Detected

28 Aug 2026 21:48 UTC (+438d after)