After DeepMind developed AlphaTensor last year and found a new algorithm for matrix multiplication, they did it again. This time they developed AlphaDev which found a new algorithm for sorting. This sounds not as exciting as a new language model, but sorting algorithms run billions of times every hour. Optimizing central algorithms like sorting and searching is one of the oldest parts of computer science and they are getting optimized for over a hundred years at this point. We did not find a better solution in the last 10 years and some believed that we reached the limit of what is possible. AlphaDevs’ new solution was implemented in the standard C++ library and is used already. The impact of these small improvements becomes enormous because they are used so much and the amount of energy that is saved adds up quickly. They also found a new hash algorithm which is used a similar amount. If AlphaDev continues to find improvements for core algorithms, every software in the world will run faster and more efficiently. Breakthroughs like this have to be considered in the discussion around the climate impact of AI training. The energy saved by these improvements offsets the used energy for training by orders of magnitude.