DeepMind's AlphaDev, an AI for discovering better algorithms, devised a C++ sorting algorithm that is up to 70% faster; ISO has since added the algorithm to C++
That standards-body ratification is what separates this from prior demos: the algorithm isn't sitting in a paper, it ships inside the toolchain every C++ developer compiles against.
First-order effects
C++ developers get sorting routines up to 70% faster with zero migration effort, because the improvement arrives through the standard library rather than a new library they must adopt.
ISO becomes the first standards body in this coverage to ratify an AI-discovered algorithm, making DeepMind a direct contributor to core language infrastructure.
Second-order effects
Stewards of other languages and standard libraries now face pressure to evaluate AI-discovered implementations, or explain why their defaults are slower than what machine search can find.
Rival AI labs' coding agents are benchmarked against a higher bar: matching human-written code (the AlphaCode framing) is no longer the frontier — beating decades-old library code and getting it standardized is.
Third-order effects
The pipeline from research demo (AlphaCode) to record-breaker (AlphaTensor) to ratified infrastructure (AlphaDev) suggests AI systems moving upstream into foundational software layers, where improvements propagate through everything built on top.
The trend: DeepMind's Alpha series is climbing from playing games to writing programs to discovering algorithms that standards bodies ratify into the base layer of computing.
I hear on average twice a week that current (or even all) AI models will never produce a solution to a complex problem for which they have not found human solutions in the training data https://twitter.com/...
Personal take: the generated compiler code here had to be double checked and understood before being deployed because there is no correctness guarantee. Also, this is a pretty broad definition of “algorithm”. These press takes are very bad for the field. https://twitter.com/...
As society becomes more digital, it's critical to improve the code powering the world's computing. Today in @Nature, we present AlphaDev, an AI system using reinforcement learning to discover enhanced computer science algorithms. How does it work? 🧵 https://dpmd.ai/... [video]
Our latest work in @Nature today: #AlphaDev discovered a new faster sorting algorithm that we open sourced to the main C++ library for all developers to use. This is just the beginning of AI being used to find many more efficiencies in code in future https://dpmd.ai/...
✨When I joined @DeepMind, I dreamed of using AI to impact the lives of billions of people. Today in @Nature I am proud to present our system AlphaDev that has discovered enhanced fundamental algorithms in computer science! 🚀 A quick thread. 🧵
Deepmind on how they trained AlphaDev. AlphaDev was so good at this game that they announced in Nature today that some of the new algorithms it discovered are - in some ranges - up to 70% faster than existing ones! https://twitter.com/... [image]
A study in @Nature shows that AlphaDev, an artificial intelligence agent from @DeepMind, discovered new and improved computer sorting algorithms widely used in C++ (a common computer programming language) libraries. https://go.nature.com/3CjfIPe [image]
I don't like the overhyped PR about this. The title claim is about “faster sorting algorithms discovered”, which suggests something along the lines of a new quick sort/merge sort. Instead this is about assembly-level micro optimizations. Useful? Sure. Groundbreaking? Not sure. ht…
Sorting is the first thing developers study when learning algorithms, and one of the most optimized fields of CS. AI finding better sorting algorithms is truly groundbreaking. https://twitter.com/...
AI used to create a new sort algorithm that is more efficient than LLVM libc++ sort (up to 70% faster)! The model is thinking in machine language. https://www.nature.com/...
It took a lot of Deep RL finesse (& some Transformers ❤️) to get the first change in over a decade accepted into the LLVM standard C++ library. AlphaDev, published @Nature by my brilliant colleagues! https://www.deepmind.com/...
“AlphaDev uncovered new Sorting Algorithms that led to improvements in the LLVM libc++ sorting library that were up to 70% faster for shorter sequences and about 1.7% faster for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements” https://www.deepmind.com/...
Just In! DeepMind presents AlphaDev, a deep reinforcement learning agent which discovers faster sorting algorithms from scratch. The algorithms outperform previously known human benchmarks and have been integrated into the LLVM C++ library. https://www.nature.com/... [image]
DeepMind's AI system, AlphaDev, is redefining code writing, making notable improvements to fundamental C++ algorithms. A noteworthy step towards AI mastering coding tasks across a variety of disciplines. #AI #DeepMind #AlphaDev #CodingInnovation https://www.wired.com/... [image]