Imagine you decide to sell your home. You contact a realtor and ask them to value your house. However, if the realtor doesn’t offer any insight into how they arrive at their estimate—for example, what ...

Instagram announced the "new way to control your Instagram experience" in a blog post on Wednesday (December 10), explaining ...

From the physical world to the virtual world, algorithms are seemingly everywhere. David J. Malan, Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, has been challenged to explain the science of ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about fitness, health and wearable tech Algorithms have taken on an almost mythical significance in the modern world. They ...

Children are natural scientists. They observe the world, form hypotheses, and test them out. Eventually, they learn to explain their (sometimes endearingly hilarious) reasoning. AI, not so much. There ...

Have you ever wondered why certain posts always appear at the top of your Instagram or Facebook feed while others seem to vanish into oblivion? The truth lies in powerful, ever-evolving algorithms ...

Jack Conte, the chief executive of Patreon, a platform for creators to monetize their art and content, outlines his vision ...

Imagine a town with two widget merchants. Customers prefer cheaper widgets, so the merchants must compete to set the lowest price. Unhappy with their meager profits, they meet one night in a ...

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.