Karatsuba’s “divide-and-conquer” multiplication algorithm has its roots in a method that Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) introduced involving the multiplication of complex numbers.

Matrix multiplication - where two grids of numbers are multiplied together - forms the basis of many computing tasks, and an improved technique discovered by an artificial intelligence could boost ...

To multiply two numbers by hand take 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.