Deep within the source code of this online multiplayer game lies an enigmatic number that puzzles and inspires experts to this day ...

Real-world optimization problems often require an external “modeling engine” that computes fitnesses or data that are then input to an objective function. These programs often have much longer ...

Bayes' theorem is a statistical formula used to calculate conditional probability. Learn how it works, how to calculate it ...

A marriage of formal methods and LLMs seeks to harness the strengths of both.

In 1930, a young physicist named Carl D. Anderson was tasked by his mentor with measuring the energies of cosmic rays—particles arriving at high speed from outer space.

Spotify Technology SA will begin testing a new feature that allows users to type an idea for a playlist into the app and receive a unique set of songs based on their historical taste and behavior. The ...

Google is collapsing the gap between quick answers and deeper chats in mobile search. For travel brands, this could mean more queries — from inspiration to booking — will run through conversational ...

I am seeing some signs of a Google search ranking update over the past day or so but the chatter is super limited right now. Many of the tools spike yesterday but like I said, the SEO community ...

Instagram is rolling out a new test that lets select users fine-tune what they’d like to see in their Reels and Explore feeds. Here’s what it looks like. Instagram lead Adam Mosseri took to Threads ...

On Thursday, Oct. 16, Dr. Safiya U. Noble delivered a presentation titled “AI and Our Future: How AI and Search Engine Algorithms Reinforce Oppression.” Before the presentation, I knew two true things ...

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. 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 ...