The word algorithm was derived from the name Al-Khwarizmi, a 9th-century Persian mathematician and author of The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. But nowadays the word most ...

J. Nathan Matias is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, and a 2022–23 fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral ...

As software and algorithms become an increasingly pervasive part of our lives, there’s growing interest and concern on how they are affecting society, the economy, and politics. Yet, most social ...

Algorithms are everywhere. They rule our lives. They decide what we see on social media, which ads get targeted to us, which route we should take to get places. If it used to be The Man keeping us ...

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.

Social media algorithms train your brain by reinforcing and radicalizing what you like and love. Credit: MASHABLE COMPOSITE: ISTOCK / JOLYGON / GETTY PLUS Mashable's series Algorithms explores the ...

It’s hard to ignore the seismic shifts brought about by algorithm-driven content. Every time you scroll through your social media feed or check your favorite news app, algorithms are diligently at ...

As the world races to build artificial superintelligence, one maverick bioengineer is testing how much unprogrammed intelligence may already be lurking in our simplest algorithms to determine whether ...

Algorithms have taken on an almost mythical significance in the modern world. They determine what you see on social media and when browsing online, help form people’s belief systems, and impact the ...

New research shows that people recognize more of their biases in algorithms' decisions than they do in their own -- even when those decisions are the same. Algorithms were supposed to make our lives ...

Over the past decade, most of us have gotten used to hearing that “the algorithm” is responsible for this or that on the internet. Sometimes it’s something useful, like movie recommendations.