A few years ago I used an algorithm to help me write a science fiction story. Adam Hammond, an English professor, and Julian Brooke, a computer scientist, had created a program called SciFiQ, and ...

Students can flowchart these algorithms or write them in pseudocode and then peer assess/evaluate them for efficiency.

Other clients favor bloggy snarkiness. "It's no more difficult to write an irreverent story than it is to write a straightforward, AP-style story," says Larry Adams, Narrative Science's VP of product.

Some web-based companies are trying to use academic studies of humor to write an algorithm for what is funny, and use it to sell an app. Humor, however, is notoriously tough to study.

Learn what an algorithm is with this KS1 primary computing guide from BBC Bitesize for years 1 and 2. We will define what an algorithm is and how they work.

The drawings may look simple (some are better than others), but it's the kind of progress that highlights how artificial intelligence is continuing to gain humanlike capabilities.

So, an algorithm is the process a computer uses to transform input data into output data. A simple concept, and yet every piece of technology that you touch involves many algorithms.