On Matrix Multiplication Algorithms | Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture

Virginia Vassilevska Williams surveys the search for faster matrix multiplication, from Strassen’s first improvement over cubic time to modern bounds. The talk explains the role of this basic operation in graph algorithms, numerical linear algebra and learning, and the unresolved question of whether its exponent can reach the quadratic output-size lower bound. It offers intuition for the development and possible future direction of the area.