On adaptive specialisation in genetic improvement

Genetic improvement uses automated search to find improved versions of existing software. Software can either be evolved with general-purpose intentions or with a focus on a specific application (e.g., to improve it's efficiency for a particular class of problems). Unfortunately, software specialisation to each problem application is generally performed independently, fragmenting and slowing down an already very time-consuming search process. We propose to incorporate specialisation as an online mechanism of the general search process, in an attempt to automatically devise application classes, by benefiting from past execution history.