Five years ago, the entire Texas power grid came within roughly four minutes of complete collapse. Now, Charles J Petrie, Jr.

At M.I.T., a new program called “artificial intelligence and decision-making” is now the second-most-popular undergraduate major. By Natasha Singer Natasha Singer covers computer science and A.I.

From powering search engines to securing data and optimizing networks, algorithms underpin nearly every aspect of modern technology. Understanding how efficiently they can solve problems — and where ...