Exploration-Exploitation papers, 2023–2026

Key findings

• Exploration-Exploitation went from 47 papers in 2023 to 71 in 2026, roughly 1.5x in three years.
• NeurIPS publishes the most Exploration-Exploitation work: 93 papers from 2023 to 2026, 40% of the four-venue total.
• The fastest-growing overlap is with Reasoning Models: papers tagged with both rose from 1 in 2023 to 10 in 2026.
• Among the 5 topics under Recommenders and Ads, it ranks #4 by 2026 paper count; the fastest grower in the group, Click-Through Prediction, is up 2.6x versus 1.5x here.

Representative papers

Spread across years and venues so every edition shows up

• NeurIPS 2026Decentralized Q-Learning in Markov Potential Games
• ICML 2026Bandit Social Leaning Dynamics with Exploration Episodes
• ICLR 2026Laplacian Kernelized Bandit
• CVPR 2026Underground Plant Exploration Non-Destructive 3D Root Assessment with GPR Based
• NeurIPS 2025DUET: Dual-Perspective Pseudo Labeling and Uncertainty-aware Exploration & Exploitation Training for Source-Free Domain Adaptation
• ICML 2025Clustering Items through Bandit Feedback: Finding the Right Feature out of Many
• ICLR 2025B-STaR: Monitoring and Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Self-Taught Reasoners
• CVPR 2025Dynamic Pseudo Labeling via Gradient Cutting for High-Low Entropy Exploration
• NeurIPS 2024Exploration, Exploitation, and Engagement in Multi-Armed Bandits with Abandonment
• ICML 2024A Contextual Combinatorial Bandit Approach to Negotiation
• ICLR 2024Dropout-Based Rashomon Set Exploration for Efficient Predictive Multiplicity Estimation
• CVPR 2024Instance-aware Exploration-Verification-Exploitation for Instance ImageGoal Navigation
• NeurIPS 2023Adaptive Algorithms for Relaxed Pareto Set Identification
• ICML 2023Curiosity in Hindsight: Intrinsic Exploration in Stochastic Environments
• ICLR 2023Combinatorial Pure Exploration of Causal Bandits
• CVPR 2023Exact-NeRF: An Exploration of a Precise Volumetric Parameterization for Neural Radiance Fields
• NeurIPS 2026Hit Expansion via Localized Exploration of Synthesizable Chemical Space
• ICML 2026Exploration-free Algorithms for Multi-group Mean Estimation
• ICLR 2026DIVERSE: Disagreement-Inducing Vector Evolution for Rashomon Set Exploration
• CVPR 2026From Exploration to Exploitation A Two-Stage Entropy RLVR Approach for

All Exploration-Exploitation papers

84 papers, page 1 of 2

1. ICML 2026Bandit Social Leaning Dynamics with Exploration Episodes
2. ICML 2026Bilinear Bandits with Partially Observable Features
3. ICML 2026Covariance Volume Maximization for Embodied Latent Exploration in Deep Reinforcement Learning
4. ICML 2026Creat3r: Confidence Reaggregation for Exploration-aware Active 3D Reconstruction
5. ICML 2026CUPID in the Model Zoo: Online Matchmaking for Selecting Your Dream LLM
6. ICML 2026Data-Source Adaptive Online Learning under Heteroscedastic Noise
7. ICML 2026DecFus: Decentralized Layer-wise Fusion with Dynamic Exploration and Exploitation
8. ICML 2026DF-ExpEnse: Diffusion Filtered Exploration for Sample Efficient Finetuning
9. ICML 2026Exploration-free Algorithms for Multi-group Mean Estimation
10. ICML 2026Follow-the-Perturbed-Leader for Decoupled Bandits: Best-of-Both-Worlds and Practicality
11. ICML 2026From Bits to Rounds: Parallel Decoding with Exploration for Diffusion Language Models
12. ICML 2026HyPER: Bridging Exploration and Exploitation for Scalable LLM Reasoning with Hypothesis Path Expansion and Reduction
13. ICML 2026Improved Bounds for Reward-Agnostic and Reward-Free Exploration
14. ICML 2026Incentivized Exploration with Stochastic Covariates: A Two-Stage Mechanism Design for Recommender System
15. ICML 2026Long Live The Balance: Information Bottleneck Driven Tree-based Policy Optimization
16. ICML 2026OneSearch: A Preliminary Exploration of the Unified End-to-End Generative Framework for E-commerce Search
17. ICML 2026Optimal Top-$k$ Identification from Pairwise Comparisons
18. ICML 2026Tracking Drift: Variation-Aware Entropy Scheduling for Non-Stationary Reinforcement Learning
19. ICML 2026XRPO: Pushing the Limits of GRPO with Targeted Exploration and Exploitation
20. ICML 2025Catching Two Birds with One Stone: Reward Shaping with Dual Random Networks for Balancing Exploration and Exploitation
21. ICML 2025Clustering Items through Bandit Feedback: Finding the Right Feature out of Many
22. ICML 2025Constrained Pareto Set Identification with Bandit Feedback
23. ICML 2025Enhancing Diversity In Parallel Agents: A Maximum State Entropy Exploration Story
24. ICML 2025EVOLvE: Evaluating and Optimizing LLMs For In-Context Exploration
25. ICML 2025Fixed-Confidence Multiple Change Point Identification under Bandit Feedback
26. ICML 2025Fixing the Loose Brake: Exponential-Tailed Stopping Time in Best Arm Identification
27. ICML 2025Hyper: Hyperparameter Robust Efficient Exploration in Reinforcement Learning
28. ICML 2025Instance-Optimal Pure Exploration for Linear Bandits on Continuous Arms
29. ICML 2025KEA: Keeping Exploration Alive by Proactively Coordinating Exploration Strategies
30. ICML 2025Learning Imperfect Information Extensive-form Games with Last-iterate Convergence under Bandit Feedback
31. ICML 2025Learning Safe Control via On-the-Fly Bandit Exploration
32. ICML 2025Leveraging Skills from Unlabeled Prior Data for Efficient Online Exploration
33. ICML 2025Model-Based Exploration in Monitored Markov Decision Processes
34. ICML 2025Near Optimal Best Arm Identification for Clustered Bandits
35. ICML 2025Near Optimal Non-asymptotic Sample Complexity of 1-Identification
36. ICML 2025Optimal and Practical Batched Linear Bandit Algorithm
37. ICML 2025Provably Efficient Exploration in Inverse Constrained Reinforcement Learning
38. ICML 2025The Batch Complexity of Bandit Pure Exploration
39. ICML 2025The Harder Path: Last Iterate Convergence for Uncoupled Learning in Zero-Sum Games with Bandit Feedback
40. ICML 2025Zero-Inflated Bandits
41. ICML 2024A Contextual Combinatorial Bandit Approach to Negotiation
42. ICML 2024Algorithm of Thoughts: Enhancing Exploration of Ideas in Large Language Models
43. ICML 2024BAGEL: Bootstrapping Agents by Guiding Exploration with Language
44. ICML 2024Bayesian Exploration Networks
45. ICML 2024Constrained Exploration via Reflected Replica Exchange Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics
46. ICML 2024Efficient Exploration for LLMs
47. ICML 2024Exploration and Anti-Exploration with Distributional Random Network Distillation
48. ICML 2024Exploration by Optimization with Hybrid Regularizers: Logarithmic Regret with Adversarial Robustness in Partial Monitoring
49. ICML 2024Fair Classification with Partial Feedback: An Exploration-Based Data Collection Approach
50. ICML 2024Geometric Active Exploration in Markov Decision Processes: the Benefit of Abstraction

FAQ

How many Exploration-Exploitation papers were published at NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML and CVPR from 2023 to 2026?

235 in total: 47 in 2023, 63 in 2024, 54 in 2025, 71 in 2026.

How many Exploration-Exploitation papers are at NeurIPS 2026?

NeurIPS 2026 has 25 Exploration-Exploitation papers, versus 20 the year before.

How many Exploration-Exploitation papers are at ICLR 2026?

ICLR 2026 has 23 Exploration-Exploitation papers, versus 10 the year before.

How many Exploration-Exploitation papers are at ICML 2026?

ICML 2026 has 19 Exploration-Exploitation papers, versus 21 the year before.

How many Exploration-Exploitation papers are at CVPR 2026?

CVPR 2026 has 4 Exploration-Exploitation papers, versus 3 the year before.

Which conference publishes the most Exploration-Exploitation papers?

NeurIPS, with 93 papers from 2023 to 2026.