High school calculus is probably the last time you had to think about algorithms—if you’re lucky, that is. But for performers and content creators alike, there’s a new algorithm to worry about: ...

Some describe social media algorithms as black boxes, dark spaces that have substantial control over what you see but offer virtually zero insight into how they do their dark magic. Instagram is ...

Streaming platforms promise to learn what viewers love and serve it back to them, but a growing body of peer-reviewed ...

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.