...and a human with a computer brain

French "mathlete" Alexis Lemaire, a 27-year-old doctoral student in artificial intelligence, calculated the 13th root of a 200-digit number in 72 seconds and claimed new world calculation record. That’s about five seconds faster than the previous record, which Lemaire also held.

Lemaire was presented with the randomly-picked number by a computer, which displayed the figure over 17 lines on the screen. It took him just over a minute to identify 2,397,207,667,966,701 as the 13th root. Yes – that’s 2 quadrillion, 397 trillion, 207 billion, 667 million, 966 thousand, 701.

How did he do it? "I use an artificial intelligence system which I use on my own brain instead of on a computer. Personally, I believe most people can do it but I have also a high-speed mind. My brain works sometimes very, very fast”, he says.