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.

In 2025, the Instagram algorithm has become more advanced than ever, using artificial intelligence and machine learning to decide what content users see in their Feeds, Reels, Stories, Explore pages, ...

Have you ever searched for a product online in the morning and gone back to look at it again in the evening only to find the price has changed? In which case you may have been subject to the ...