From Netflix to Bumble: The Science Behind Your Feed | Binge Thinking NYC

Every time you open Netflix, swipe on a dating app, or scroll your feed, an algorithm is quietly making a bet on what will keep you there. These systems shape what movies you watch, who you match with, and what you believe — yet almost nobody outside the industry actually understands how they work.

Dr. Chris Volinsky knows exactly how they work, because he helped build one of the most famous ones. In 2009, he was part of the seven-person, four-country team that won Netflix's $1 million Prize competition to build a better recommendation engine — beating out thousands of competitors from around the world. Since then he's spent decades inside the data, from AT&T's Chief Data Office to the front lines of dating app matching, watching these systems evolve from clever math tricks into forces that quietly steer culture, relationships, and attention itself.

In this talk, Dr. Volinsky pulls back the curtain on the algorithms running your life, mixing the inside story of the Netflix Prize with lesser-known tales from the world of online dating — and ends with something you can actually use: real advice on how to bend these systems in your favor, or shut them off entirely.

Topics include:

• How recommendation algorithms actually decide what to show you
• The inside story of the Netflix Prize, and how a scrappy international team beat the odds
• What dating apps get right (and very wrong) about matching people
• The hidden societal impact of letting algorithms make more of our decisions
• Practical strategies to steer your algorithms toward what actually serves you
• How to opt out of the recommendation game altogether, if you'd rather not play

About the Speaker

Dr. Chris Volinsky is a Clinical Professor of Technology, Operations, and Statistics at NYU Stern School of Business. He earned his BA in Statistics and Mathematics from the University of Buffalo and his PhD in Statistics from the University of Washington.

Before joining NYU Stern in 2023, Dr. Volinsky spent 25 years at AT&T Labs and the Chief Data Office, where he led a team of 40 data scientists tackling everything from fraud detection to computer vision on drone footage. He's best known for being part of BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos, the team that won the legendary $1 million Netflix Prize in 2009. His research today spans recommender systems, personalization, social networks, and the thorny question of bias in machine learning.

7:00 PM — Doors Open (Grab a seat and drinks!)

7:30 PM — Lecture Begins

8:10 PM — Audience Q&A

8:30 PM — Drinks & Conversation

9:00 PM — Event Ends