"The Algorithm" is a web-based game built by Decifer Studio, founded by Alia ElKattan and Lujain Ibrahim, through the generous support of The Mozilla Foundation's Creative Media Award.

It would not have been possible without the contributions of these incredibly talented people:

• Isabel Lee, web & game development
• Andy Wallace, game design & development
• Gabriel Silveira, design & illustration

While research on how recommender systems function is prevalent in computer science and related fields, the public's understanding of “The Algorithm” is extremely limited. This project aims to change that. "The Algorithm" is a part of our greater mission of demystifying emerging technologies like algorithms and artificial intelligence, explaining both how they work and do not work, to the general public. We believe an informed public can more meaningfully participate in the development and regulation of these technologies, and that we can collectively shape our technological futures.

The Algorithm was built following a research period, where we synthesized literature from across computer science, law, policy, and the social sciences, and attended conferences such as the Algorithmic Amplification Symposium.

We then wanted to build a first-person experience that uses the format people engage with these algorithms in (i.e., a video-based social media feed) as the medium. To create a feed that would be usable by people of different demographics, we used p5.js animations of different aesthetics (e.g., emoji, 3D, text-based), colors, speeds, and shapes.

Using code-based animations allowed us to both change the meta features to create personalized content as well as multiply our animation pieces into a larger number of content pieces. Throughout the experience, our "algorithm" keeps track of what style, shape, color, and speed the user interacts with, and adjusts its recommendations accordingly.

The Algorithm © 2024 by Decifer Studio, Alia ElKattan, Lujain Ibrahim, Isabel Lee, Andy Wallace is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

You can access the game here. If you want to use the codebase to build a new game/experience or to run experiments and user studies, make sure to cite the this repository:

@misc{thealgorithmexplainer_2024,
  author = {Elkattan, Alia and Ibrahim, Lujain and Lee, Isabel and Wallace, Andy},
  title = {"The Algorithm"},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/whatsthealgorithm/whatsthealgorithm}},
}

Please see this contact page for contact options or email us.