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Computer science

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Best-Ever Algorithm Found for Huge Streams of Data

October 24, 2017

To efficiently analyze a firehose of data, scientists first have to break big numbers into bits.

Artificial Intelligence Learns to Learn Entirely on Its Own

October 18, 2017

A new version of AlphaGo needed no human instruction to figure out how to clobber the best Go player in the world — itself.

How to Win at Deep Learning

October 9, 2017

What happens when you increase the number of layers in an artificial neural network?

One-Way Salesman Finds Fast Path Home

October 5, 2017

The real-world version of the famous “traveling salesman problem” finally gets a good-enough solution.

New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep Learning

September 21, 2017

A new idea is helping to explain the puzzling success of today’s artificial-intelligence algorithms — and might also explain how human brains learn.

A Brain Built From Atomic Switches Can Learn

September 20, 2017

A tiny self-organized mesh full of artificial synapses recalls its experiences and can solve simple problems. Its inventors hope it points the way to devices that match the brain’s energy-efficient computing prowess.

Clever Machines Learn How to Be Curious

September 19, 2017

Computer scientists are finding ways to code curiosity into intelligent machines.

Subhash Khot, Playing Unique Games in Washington Square Park

July 10, 2017

The theoretical computer scientist behind the influential Unique Games Conjecture delights in the wonders of New York’s Washington Square Park, where he ponders the impossible.

Q&A

How Nature Solves Problems Through Computation

July 6, 2017

The evolutionary biologist Jessica Flack seeks the computational rules that groups of organisms use to solve problems.

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