The AI system has made a significant breakthrough by uncovering faster sorting and hashing algorithms for AI developers worldwide.

Many different sorting algorithms exist, but innovations are limited as they have been highly optimised over the decades.

Overall, AlphaDev’s new C++ sorting algorithms are 1.7 percent more efficient than the prior methods when sorting long sequences of numbers, and up to 70 percent faster for five-item sequences.

DeepMind wasn't only playing chess and Go for fun. The lab's new AlphaDev system applies the lessons from games to fundamental algorithms.