CAMBRIDGE, U.K. – A small Microsoft Research team had lofty goals when it set out four years ago to create an analog optical computer that would use light as a medium for solving complex problems.

When computer scientists hang out at cocktail parties, they're apt to chat, among other things, about the single most important unsolved problem in computer science: the question, Does P = NP?

AlphaEvolve uses large language models to find new algorithms that outperform the best human-made solutions for data center management, chip design, and more. Google DeepMind has once again used large ...