In 1960, Andrey Kolmogorov posed a seemingly impossible challenge at a seminar at Moscow State University: could there be a ...

Here's what algorithms do behind the scenes and why they're important. Okay, what's an algorithm? A computer algorithm is a set of instructions that tell computers how to handle and interpret data.

At issue was an algorithm called Q* (pronounced “Q-star”), which has allegedly been shown to solve certain grade-school-level math problems that it hasn’t seen before.

The algorithm says, ‘What’s everyone else having?’” “In algorithmic culture, the right choice is always what the majority of other people have already chosen,” writes Chayka.