Interview with Stephen Wolfram on AI and the future
Few people in the tech world can truly be said to “need no introduction.” Stephen Wolfram is certainly one of them. But while…
Algorithms
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It’s not just journalists — for better or worse, design plays a key role in how we get our news
The news is no longer contained in an object we can hold, but flows around us through a variety of apps and services, and the design or algorithmic choices those platforms make can affect how we see the world around us
Many users are outraged at the idea that Twitter might use an algorithm to filter their feeds
The suggestion that Twitter might apply Facebook-style algorithmic filtering to its timelines — something executives have said they are considering — seemed to strike many users as the worst thing that could happen to the service
Twitter CFO says a Facebook-style filtered feed is coming, whether you like it or not
At a financial conference, Twitter’s chief financial officer Anthony Noto suggested that the service will offer algorithm-driven curation of feeds much like Facebook does, in order to try and improve the relevance for users
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Twitter vs. Facebook as a news source: Ferguson shows the downsides of an algorithmic filter
Twitter’s brevity and the nature of the relationship that users have with each other will likely always make it better suited for breaking news, but Facebook also loses out as a news source because of the way it uses ranking algorithms to filter the newsfeed
Facebook says no to like-bait and viral content — but what if that’s what users really want?
The more Facebook tries to control the News Feed in order to make sure the content in it is “high quality” enough, the more likely it is to irritate users who actually want to see or share the things Facebook defines as spam
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This is what happens when Facebook controls the signal, and it defines you as noise
Brands and prominent users like comedian Rainn Wilson are complaining about Facebook’s algorithm changes and how that forces them to pay money to reach their fans and followers — but Facebook has always been that kind of network. It controls the signal-to-noise ratio, not you
The news curation game gets another entrant as the WaPo’s former owner relaunches Trove
The former owners of the Washington Post have relaunched a news-curation and recommendation app called Trove, which they hope will encourage users to find and share content in new ways — but the curation market is a crowded one
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AncestryDNA is pushing past Hadoop as it pinpoints our pasts
AncestryDNA is getting much better at telling users where their ancestors hail from and who their relatives are, but all this improvement comes at a technological cost. The more data it gathers, the more it pushes its infrastructure and algorithms to the limit.
A tip for Uber: Sometimes the best PR strategy is to do something that isn’t rational
What Uber calls “surge pricing” makes a lot of sense from a rational, economic point of view — but when it is used during disasters like the floods in Toronto, it still leaves the company with a black eye.
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3 shades of latency: How Netflix built a data architecture around timeliness
Netflix computes information in different ways, depending on how soon the data needs to get served up to customers or evaluated internally. The nuanced approach extends to Facebook, LinkedIn and other webscale companies.
How researchers are fighting lung cancer using PageRank
Medical researchers are using a mathematical process similar to Google PageRank in order to identify organs most likely to spread lung cancer throughout the human body.
Facebook responds to criticisms of newsfeed, says it’s algorithms are designed to keep users happy
Facebook responded to criticisms of its newsfeed algorithms on Monday, arguing that it’s constantly tweaking the formula but working to make sure posts in the feed are relevant to all users.
Here’s the problem with book publishers’ discovery problem
When it comes to discoverability and walled gardens, there’s a flip side.
Palm creator’s brain-mimicking software helps manage the smart grid
Numenta, the latest startup from Palm creator Jeff Hawkins, aims to help us make sense of fast-flowing machine-to-machine data by recognizing patterns and building models. Its latest customer is smart-grid efficiency expert EnerNOC.
Why big data might be more about automation than insights
Big data technologies are like manufacturing robots: they let people do what they’re already trying to do, only faster than before and at a much greater scale. But as with any other product, that analyzed data is nothing without humans to do something with it.
Meet the algorithm that’s way better than you at Sudoku
A team of University of Notre Dame researchers has developed an algorithm for solving Sudoku puzzles that doesn’t require it to guess at all. Rather, it’s able to discern patterns even with sparse available information and automatically determine which numbers go where.
Researchers using AI to build robotic bees
Building a robotic bee that acts like a real bee is a lot more complicated than programming a robot to fly around from flower to flower. A project called Green Brain aims to build an artificial intelligence system that can actually mimic a bee’s brain.
Can Kaggle make data science a spectator sport?
Data science competition platform Kaggle is opening up the leaderboards for its invitation-only private competitions, meaning anyone can watch and see how the world’s best data scientists are faring in these special challenges. Can data science actually become a spectator sport in the analytics community?
How researchers are letting us uncover secrets in social data
Thanks to the popularity of everything from social media sites such as Twitter to email to mobile phones, it’s easier than ever to get data about who’s connected to whom. With the right tools, we can apply it solve certain problems faster and easier than ever.
An algorithm for tracking viruses (and Twitter rumors) to their source
A team of Swiss researchers thinks it has created an algorithm capable of tracking almost anything — from computer viruses to terrorist attacks to epidemics — back to the source using a minimal amount of data. The trick is focusing on time to figure out who “infected” whom.
Big data magic trick: Show me a doorway, I’ll tell you the city
A group of researchers have created a computing system capable of identifying the unique features that help create a city’s look and feel, beyond just its famous landmarks. Their project is just the beginning, however, as the researchers note numerous artistic and commerical applications.
BloomReach wants to save your site traffic with big data
BloomReach emerged from stealth mode a message about how it will help ensure companies get their web pages heard above the noise online. Using a potent brew of big data techniques, BloomReach says it can significantly improve traffic by making pages more relevant to consumers.
How P2P could save the set-top box by improving VOD
Netflix dominates the business of streaming movies and television into consumers’ homes, but a new business model developed by big data firm Opera Solutions could help give cable companies the inside track. The model is combination of peer-to-peer networking via set-top boxes and big data algortihms.
The rise of the new information gatekeepers
Google, Apple, Twitter and Facebook have all been in the news recently because of their control over our access to certain information, and the ways in which they could potentially restrict it. How much does that affect the way we perceive the world around us?
