Computer Science

For all their triumphs, AI systems can’t seem to generalize the concepts of “same” and “different.” Without that, researchers worry, the quest to create truly intelligent machines may be hopeless.

To understand what quantum computers can do — and what they can’t — avoid falling for overly simple explanations.

To build a general artificial intelligence, we may need to know more about our own minds, argues the computer scientist Melanie Mitchell.

Two new approaches allow deep neural networks to solve entire families of partial differential equations, making it easier to model complicated systems and to do so orders of magnitude faster.

The computer scientist Rediet Abebe’s passion for applied mathematics closely aligns with her passion to solve problems with poverty and social inequality.

Rediet Abebe uses the tools of theoretical computer science to understand pressing social problems — and try to fix them.

Avi Wigderson and László Lovász won for their work developing complexity theory and graph theory, respectively, and for connecting the two fields.

By harnessing randomness, a new algorithm achieves a fundamentally novel — and faster — way of performing one of the most basic computations in math and computer science.

In a second season of enlightened conversations, Steven Strogatz and leading researchers nourish our pandemic-starved minds.