Category: Series

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Can we use maths to beat the robots?

Daily advances in the technology of artificial intelligence may leave humans playing catch-up ? but in at least one area we can still retain an edge, mathematics. However it?ll require changes in how we think about and teach maths and we may still have to leave the simple adding up to the computers. Junaid Mubeen, author of Mathematical Intelligence, tells Tim Harford what it?ll take to stay ahead of the machines.

Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Jon Bithrey Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar Production Coordinator: Jacqui Johnson Editor: Richard Vadon

(Image: Digital generated image of artificial intelligence robot scanning the data: Getty / Andriy Onufriyenko)

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Curious City - Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain and Why the City’s Got So Many Alleys

Growing up, one listener heard tales about how an engineer was hidden inside Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain in order to make sure the water spouts out each day. This week we go inside the innards of the fountain to see how it works and learn the history behind it. Plus, we get the answer to the question: Why does Chicago have so many alleys?
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Cato Daily Podcast - Jawboning over Social Media’s Handling of Hunter Biden

The Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed by Facebook and other social media over a general request regarding “election disinformation” from the FBI. It’s the kind of compliance that government probably couldn't get through legislation. Will Duffield discusses the difficult situations that arise from Congressional jawboning over social media moderation.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Energy prices, excess deaths and the race to count to 200

With energy prices in the UK spiralling, Tim Harford asks whether there is an easy and realistic way for bills to be cut. Also the number of excess deaths in the UK is rising ? we?ll hear how much covid is still to blame. We return to the subject of counting in twenties, this time hearing how the Welsh language mixes traditional and decimal systems. And we debunk some spurious social media claims around Liverpool players and asthma medication.

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Kenya?s Election Rounding Error

When the official figures were announced in Kenya?s presidential election, it looked like the total percentage share of the vote for each candidate came to more than 100%. As this should not be possible, many wondered if up to 142,000 votes might be miscounted. We explore what turns out to be a simple mathematical misunderstanding of the numbers.