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.

Loneliness has become a defining challenge of our time. One in three adult Americans says they have experienced loneliness at least once a week over the past year. With the evolution of online ...

As a journalist who covers AI, I hear from countless people who seem utterly convinced that ChatGPT, Claude, or some other chatbot has achieved “sentience.” Or “consciousness.” Or—my personal favorite ...

Ever let your kid play music from your Spotify account, or been asked to put on a playlist that’s not your normal taste? You’re probably tired of those choices affecting your recommendations, one of ...

TikTok will not shut down on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump inches nearer to closing a deal with China that will most likely see the app’s majority ownership shift to US owners and US-based ...

It can take weeks to write a grant proposal, so how would it feel to have a machine reject it in seconds? Researchers in Spain have been finding out, after a major funding foundation in the country ...

You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. Follow James Faris Every time James publishes a story, you’ll get ...

Google DeepMind today pulled the curtain back on AlphaEvolve, an artificial-intelligence agent that can invent brand-new computer algorithms — then put them straight to work inside the company's vast ...

Language isn’t always necessary. While it certainly helps in getting across certain ideas, some neuroscientists have argued that many forms of human thought and reasoning don’t require the medium of ...

Human physiology is so complex, and the external variables so numerous, that we often have no sure knowledge of why one patient did well or another patient didn’t. Every physician longs for some way ...