Bill Andrews

Jan 24, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Steve Nadis |Ben Brubaker |Bill Andrews

Computer scientists often deal with abstract problems that are hard to comprehend, but an exciting new algorithm matters to anyone who owns books and at least one shelf. The algorithm addresses something called the library sorting problem (more formally, the “list labeling” problem). The challenge is to devise a strategy for organizing books in some kind of sorted order — alphabetically, for instance — that minimizes how long it takes to place a new book on the shelf.

Jan 13, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Ben Brubaker |Bill Andrews |Noam Chomsky

Introduction Learning a language can’t be that hard — every baby in the world manages to do it in a few years. Figuring out how the process works is another story. Linguists have devised elaborate theories to explain it, but recent advances in machine learning have added a new wrinkle. When computer scientists began building the language models that power modern chatbots like ChatGPT, they set aside decades of research in linguistics, and their gamble seemed to pay off.

Jan 3, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Ben Brubaker |Bill Andrews |Susan D'Agostino

Introduction Pose a question to a Magic 8 Ball, and it’ll answer yes, no or something annoyingly indecisive. We think of it as a kid’s toy, but theoretical computer scientists employ a similar tool. They often imagine they can consult hypothetical devices called oracles that can instantly, and correctly, answer specific questions. These fanciful thought experiments have inspired new algorithms and helped researchers map the landscape of computation.

Dec 20, 2023 | quantamagazine.org | Bill Andrews

SERIESIntroductionIn 2023, artificial intelligence dominated popular culture — showing up in everything from internet memes to Senate hearings. Large language models such as those behind ChatGPT fueled a lot of this excitement, even as researchers still struggled to pry open the “black box” that describes their inner workings. Image generation systems also routinely impressed and unsettled us with their artistic abilities, yet these were explicitly founded on concepts borrowed from physics.