What Is an Algorithm?
An algorithm is a finite list of unambiguous steps for getting from an input to a result. A recipe is one. So is long division. Computers did not invent them and are not required to run them.
Explainly Editorial
The house byline for Explainly. Explainers under it are drafted with the help of a large language model and edited in-house, and the launch set has not yet been checked line by line against primary sources. The editorial policy sets out the standard we are working towards, where this archive currently falls short of it, and how corrections are handled. Corrections are the most welcome message this site receives.
What a VPN Actually Does (and What It Doesn't)
A VPN moves the point at which your traffic joins the open internet. It hides your browsing from your network provider and hides your location from websites. It does not make you anonymous.
How Do Large Language Models Actually Work?
A language model predicts what text should come next, one fragment at a time. Everything it appears to do, including reasoning, is built out of that single trick performed at enormous scale.
How Does the Internet Actually Work?
The internet is a set of agreements about how computers pass small chunks of data to each other. No single machine holds it, and nobody is in charge of it.
What Is an API?
An API is a menu one program offers another: here is what you can ask me for, and here is exactly how to ask. You use dozens of them every day without ever seeing one.
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