Cassie Guo

One of Pinterest users’ top complaints for years has been a lack of control over what its algorithm shows them, Seyal says. “You’d click on something, and your whole feed becomes that.” The question was how to solve it without putting the algorithm’s efficacy at risk. “Every person who runs a feed for an online platform will say, ‘Oh, yeah, we tried to make it more controllable. But when we tried to launch it, it dropped top-line engagement.’”

…ss is the first taste of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful yet least scrutinized algorithms. The code that powers Pinterest’s home feed, search results, and notifications — determining what images and ideas users see at every turn — is similar in kind to that which underpins Facebook’s News Feed, YouTube’s recommendations, or TikTok’s For You page. It’s the core product of a $15 billion company that successfully went public this year — the only on…

Tell Pinterest you’re a woman in your thirties, and your suggested interests will include “Makeup,” “Hair Tutorials,” “Workout Plans,” and “Dinner Recipes.” Tell it you’re a man in your thirties, and you’ll get some very different choices: “Woodworking,” “Funny Pictures,” “Survival Skills,” and “Gaming.” Or you can type your own response into a “Non-Binary” selection — it allows you to input anything …