To multiply two numbers by hand takes a few steps but it's something we're taught in school. When dealing with big numbers, really big numbers, we need to a quicker way to do things.

You wouldn’t use this algorithm when calculating a tip, but when it comes to multiplying large numbers, Karatsuba’s method was a big advance. And once Karatsuba opened the door to faster ...

See all Abstractions blog Even more important, the multiplication algorithm is part of a class of nearly ubiquitous algorithms in computer science. Gidney expects that his new technique will allow ...

To help you understand the algorithm, the video shows a simple two-digit by two-digit multiplication. You can see that the first and last digits are essentially the result of one multiplication.

The algorithm is able to re-discover older matrix multiplication algorithms and improve upon its own to discover newer and faster algorithms. “AlphaTensor is the first AI system for discovering novel, ...

Those algorithms run up to 20% faster than existing matrix multiplication methods, according to the Alphabet unit.

Karatsuba’s divide-and-conquer multiplication algorithm takes advantage of this saving. Consider a multiplication algorithm that parallels the way multiplication of complex numbers works.