# Explainable Linear Programs

DevFeed: [Explainable Linear Programs](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/explainable-linear-programs-40514.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.jeremykun.com/shortform/2025-02-06-2124/>)

Published: 2025-02-07T05:24:38Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Jeremy Kun](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jeremy-kun.md>)

Topics: [Optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/optimization.md>), [scheduling](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/scheduling.md>), [Routing (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/routing.md>), [Large Language Model](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm.md>), [Microsoft](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/microsoft.md>)

Tags: [google](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/google.md>), [large-language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/large-language-models.md>), [microsoft](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/microsoft.md>), [optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/optimization.md>), [routing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/routing.md>), [scheduling](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scheduling.md>), [shortform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/shortform.md>)

## AI overview

The author describes a 2020 side project for explaining linear-programming solutions by interactively changing constraints or objectives, re-solving models, and aggregating differences using semantic metadata. The article connects this approach to a 2023 Microsoft paper that uses a large language model to translate natural-language queries into structured queries for supply-chain optimization.

## Source excerpt

Back in 2020, when I worked in the supply chain side of Google, I had a fun and impactful side project related to human-level explanations of linear programs. A linear program is a mathematical model that defines some number of variables, linear constraints, and a linear objective function. When some variables are forced to be integer (ILPs), you can solve a lot of useful problems like scheduling, routing, and packing. That's basically how all supply chain optimization works.