Machine Learning-Based Surrogate Model for Genetic Algorithm with Aggressive Mutation for Feature Selection

The genetic algorithm with aggressive mutations GAAM, is a specialised algorithm for feature selection. This algorithm is dedicated to the selection of a small number of features and allows the user to specify the maximum number of features desired. A major obstacle to the use of this algorithm is its high computational cost, which increases significantly with the number of dimensions to be retained. To solve this problem, we introduce a surrogate model based on machine learning, which reduces the number of evaluations of the fitness function by an average of 48% on the datasets tested, using the standard parameters specified in the original paper. Additionally, we experimentally demonstrate that eliminating the crossover step in the original algorithm does not result in any visible changes in the algorithm’s results. We also demonstrate that the original algorithm uses an artificially complex mutation method that could be replaced by a simpler method without loss of efficiency. The sum of the improvements resulted in an average reduction of 53% in the number of evaluations of the fitness functions. Finally, we have shown that these outcomes apply to parameters beyond those utilized in the initial article, while still achieving a comparable decrease in the count of evaluation function calls. Tests were conducted on 9 datasets of varying dimensions, using two different classifiers.