AlphaEvolve helps lower the matrix multiplication exponent ω to below 2.371177
Result confirmed
The takeaway
A paper by Alman, Vassilevska Williams and co-authors including DeepMind researchers (arXiv 2608.16884) improved the bound on the matrix multiplication exponent from ω < 2.371339 to ω < 2.371177.
Status
- Claim
Result confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Verification
- Preprint only
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 29 September 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 Astra109 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.548 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen139 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.778 days after its cutoff
None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 48 days before it.
Key facts
- ω < 2.371177 (previous: 2.371339)
- Humans reformulated the optimisation problem; AlphaEvolve improved the numerical optimisation
What happened
Leading researchers on fast matrix multiplication used AlphaEvolve inside their laser-method pipeline to squeeze out a new record bound.
Why it matters
Progress on ω comes in tiny, hard-won steps. AI now contributes to the asymptotic theory as well as to small concrete algorithms.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 2 primary, 1 press
Primary
- arXiv 2608.16884arxiv.org, paper
- Pushmeet Kohli on X announcing ω < 2.371177x.com, official
Press
- AI Weekly: AlphaEvolve helps push matrix multiplication to 2.371177aiweekly.co, press
Changes
- Added post link(s) (1) from Google/DeepMind + math posts pass
- Filed