The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine a town with two widget merchants. Customers prefer cheaper widgets, so the merchants must compete to set the lowest price.

Digital quantification determines Americans’ quality of life. Algorithms select job applicants for interviews and employees for performance bonuses. They aggregate stories and products as we shop for ...

Computer scientists have written a network flow algorithm that computes almost as fast as is mathematically possible. This algorithm computes the maximum traffic flow with minimum transport costs for ...

It is impossible to stop the march of algorithms into our daily lives, so it is essential we all understand what they can do EVERY day, algorithms make decisions that affect your life, whether it is ...

The library sorting problem is used across computer science for organizing far more than just books. A new solution is less than a page-width away from the theoretical ideal. Computer scientists often ...

The algorithms that most social media platforms like Facebook, X, and TikTok use today might be contributing to political conflict and polarization. But a new study from the University of Copenhagen ...

Three new books warn against turning into the person the algorithm thinks you are. Like a lot of Netflix subscribers, I find that my personal feed tends to be hit or miss. Usually more miss. The ...