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Google moves to tackle those spammy searches

Mar 8, 2024
Users have increasingly complained that the search engine has been overrun by a barrage of low-quality content.
Chesnot/Getty Images

Meet the algorithms connecting Trump tweets and the stock market

Aug 29, 2019
Here's how and why the stock market responds instantaneously to tweets by President Trump.
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange ahead of the closing bell on August 2, 2017.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Perhaps Congress took "The Wizard of Oz" a bit too seriously

Dec 11, 2018
At the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Rep. Zoe Lofgren from California had to ask for clarification that Google’s Search algorithm is not a “little man sitting behind the curtain figuring out what [Google is] going to show.” She wasn’t the only one that was confused by how Google works. On […]

Some of YouTube's biggest stars say their work is hurting their health

Nov 28, 2018
Is the platform's unpredictable algorithm contributing to burnout?
LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images

How tech is finding its way into your beauty bag

Mar 16, 2017
Turns out algorithms are just at good at assessing your pores as analyzing data.
More than 300 companies displayed their products at the Beauty Tech Summit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Products showcased include a hairbrush with a built-in microphone.
Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

False information on the internet is hiding the truth about onions

Mar 14, 2017
Tom Scocca wants to fight "the darkness of falsehood." He's starting with onions.







Google changed the search results on how long it takes to caramelize onions after Tom Scocca's recent blog post.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Full interview: San Francisco district attorney on using algorithm to set bail

Aug 16, 2016
Can an algorithm be more just than a human?
Various regions across the country are testing a bail-setting algorithm.
GTPS/Visual Hunt

Full interview: ProPublica's Julia Angwin on biased sentencing algorithms

May 25, 2016
Looking at the racial bias of algorithms.
An algorithm created by the for-profit company Northpointe to predict future crime was only 61 percent accurate, according to a ProPublica analysis.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

Robot Tastemakers

Mar 23, 2016
"Actuality" visits Spotify to look into the algorithmic DJs that soundtrack our lives.
French electronic duo Daft Punk, the original robot DJs, in "Tron: Legacy"
via Giphy