# The Reasonable Effectiveness of the Multiplicative Weights Update Algorithm

DevFeed: [The Reasonable Effectiveness of the Multiplicative Weights Update Algorithm](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-reasonable-effectiveness-of-the-multiplicative-weights-update-algorithm-40407.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.jeremykun.com/2017/02/27/the-reasonable-effectiveness-of-the-multiplicative-weights-update-algorithm/>)

Published: 2017-02-27T08:00:42Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Jeremy Kun](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jeremy-kun.md>)

Topics: [Algorithms](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/algorithms.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>), [Machine learning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/machine-learning.md>), [Optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/optimization.md>)

Tags: [algorithm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/algorithm.md>), [game-theory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/game-theory.md>), [javascript](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/javascript.md>), [linear-programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linear-programming.md>), [machine-learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/machine-learning.md>), [mathematics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mathematics.md>), [multiplicative-weights-update-algorithm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multiplicative-weights-update-algorithm.md>), [mwua](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mwua.md>), [optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/optimization.md>), [programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming.md>), [python](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/python.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains the Multiplicative Weights Update Algorithm (MWUA), including its weight-update rule, an investment-expert example, and the algorithm's theoretical guarantee for identifying a strong expert over repeated rounds. It also introduces an interactive demonstration.

## Source excerpt

papad Hard to believe Sanjeev Arora and his coauthors consider it "a basic tool [that should be] taught to all algorithms students together with divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, and random sampling." Christos Papadimitriou calls it "so hard to believe that it has been discovered five times and forgotten." It has formed the basis of algorithms in machine learning, optimization, game theory, economics, biology, and more. What mystical algorithm has such broad applications?