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.

In an era dominated by social media, misinformation has become an all too familiar foe, infiltrating our feeds and sowing seeds of doubt and confusion. With more than half of social media users across ...

Kash Patel defends FBI’s handling of Charlie Kirk shooting and says suspect motivated by ‘hatred’ of conservative’s beliefs 'If we're not there already we're coming to a town near you' Aldi says, ...

Ever wondered how social media platforms decide how to fill our feeds? They use algorithms, of course, but how do these algorithms work? A series of corporate leaks over the past few years provides a ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. One July afternoon in 2024, Ryan Williams set out to prove himself wrong. Two months had passed since he’d hit upon a startling ...

When it comes to teaching math, a debate has persisted for decades: How, and to what degree, should algorithms be a focus of learning math? The step-by-step procedures are among the most debated ...

When Google launched the March 2025 core update last week, Google said there will be a series of improvements aimed to help “better surface relevant, satisfying content” from content creators ...

You might have heard that algorithms are in control of everything you hear, read, and see. They control the next song on your Spotify playlist, or what YouTube suggests you watch after you finish a ...

Social media platforms are more than just tools for sharing cat videos or keeping up with friends—they're powerful influencers of public opinion. The algorithms that drive these platforms determine ...

Microsoft has updated a key cryptographic library with two new encryption algorithms designed to withstand attacks from quantum computers. The updates were made last week to SymCrypt, a core ...