Garbled Radio Signals May Explain Why We Haven’t Heard From Aliens

A recent SETI Institute study suggests that space weather could blur and weaken extraterrestrial radio signals long before ...

Moral metrics: Are corporate algorithms becoming our new moral authorities?

Scores are ubiquitous today, from data in parenting apps to fitness monitors. For some users, those scores start to shape a ...
The Conversation

A few weeks of X’s algorithm can make you more right‑wing – and it doesn’t wear off quickly

Timothy Graham receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the Discovery Project, 'Understanding and Combatting "Dark Political Communication"'. A new study published today in ...
Wall Street Journal

A Stanford Experiment to Pair 5,000 Singles Has Taken Over Campus

When Ben Rosenfeld started working as a residential assistant at a Stanford University dorm, he encountered 77 freshmen possessed by an “all-consuming” force. His new gig coincided with the release of ...
Wall Street Journal

AI Can Make Decisions Better Than People Do. So Why Don’t We Trust It?

If you happen to be on a Texas highway sometime this summer, and see a 50,000-pound semi truck barreling along with nobody behind the wheel, just remember: A self-driving truck is less likely to kill ...
TechCrunch

Instagram’s new ‘Your Algorithm’ tool gives you more control over the Reels you see

Instagram is introducing a new tool that lets you see and control your algorithm, starting with Reels, the company announced on Wednesday. The new tool, called “Your Algorithm,” lets you view the ...
Wired

A New Algorithm Makes It Faster to Find the Shortest Paths

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle ...