About this channel
Computerphile takes familiar computing ideas and opens them up for closer inspection. An undo command, the time a program takes to run and the messages carried by GPS all become subjects for…
Computerphile takes familiar computing ideas and opens them up for closer inspection. An undo command, the time a program takes to run and the messages carried by GPS all become subjects for technical explanation. The channel's selection spans programming, computer history, security, AI and quantum computing, giving viewers room to follow a particular interest or explore connections between different areas of computer science.
Some episodes begin with a detail that is easy to overlook. Implementing undo turns a routine software action into a design problem, while a comparison of CPU time and elapsed time examines what performance measurements actually mean. These topics suit programmers and technically curious viewers who want to understand the mechanism behind an everyday result. The titles suggest focused explanations built around one question rather than broad surveys of an entire field.
Historical material covers ITS, Eliza, MIT's AI Lab, Lisp and the PiDP machines. That thread sits alongside discussions of quantum simulation and machine learning, placing earlier systems and emerging approaches within the same computing conversation.
AI-related episodes investigate how generated content can be tracked through watermarks and what it might mean for systems to use a form of communication people cannot readily read. Security incidents involving a German wiki and RubyGems add another practical angle. Taken together, the selection is suited to students, developers and curious viewers who enjoy moving from a deceptively simple question to the concepts underneath it, whether the subject is an interface feature, an old machine or a new model.
Latest episode
Race Conditions on a Human Scale - Computerphile
When two threads or processes clash, a race condition can occur. Matt Godbolt demonstrates different kinds of race conditions by equating these to real-life human situations.
Find out more about…
When two threads or processes clash, a race condition can occur. Matt Godbolt demonstrates different kinds of race conditions by equating these to real-life human situations.
Find out more about Matt from his blog: https://bit.ly/C_MGodbolt
Computerphile is supported by Jane Street. Learn more about them (and exciting career opportunities) at: https://jane-st.co/computerphile
This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.
Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. More at https://www.bradyharanblog.com
YouTube Shorts
Bletchley Park (Colossus) Playlist
Compilers with Professor Brailsford
Computerphile at EMF Camp 2018
Computerphile at Oxford Robotics Institute
Computerphile Soundcheck Videos
Data Analysis with Dr Mike Pound
David Domminney Fowler on Computerphile
Git with Dr Max Wilson
Laurence Tratt
Mike Pound on Computerphile
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More episodes from this channel
Implementing Undo - Computerphile
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We use undo daily, but have you thought about what goes into making a functional undo in a program? Dr Steve Bagley takes us through some of the things we need to think about...
What the Labs Kept Secret: The German Wiki & RubyGems Hacks - Computerphile
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How Watermarks Track AI Generated Content - Computerphile
3.9.2026
This AI Watermarking Deep Dive by Dr Mike Pound includes an explanation of the idea behind the latest AI Watermarking plus a demo of Mike's own implementation of the system. SynthID Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08025-4 Computerphile...
Why CPU Time ≠ Wall Clock Time! - Computerphile
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The CPU can take time to find out the time, so how does it know the time? Matt Godbolt is the genius behind Compiler Explorer and the Godbolt BBC Micro Emulator, find more from...
Quantum Simulation & Nature - Computerphile
17.8.2026
Learn more about the Jane Street internship at: https://jane-st.co/internships2027-Computerphile Simulations of nature and physics are a potential application of quantum computing. Ella and Alex take us through how using quantum techniques could supersede classical...
ITS, Eliza & MiT's AI Lab - Computerphile
30.7.2026
ITS is the Incompatible Timesharing System. Academics at the MIT AI Lab didn't like earlier incarnations of time-sharing so they invented their own. Lars Brinkhoff and Oscar Vermeulen explain and demonstrate this segment of...
PiDP10 - Computerphile
29.7.2026
The excitement of video games from the 8-bit home video era but decades earlier and with a few zeroes added to the price tag the PDP10 was a lot of machine for the late...
PiDP6 & Lisp - Computerphile
28.7.2026
The PDP6 was a DEC computer from the early 1960's - Angelo Papenhoff takes us through the machine and shows us some Lisp 'Poetry' Computerphile is supported by Jane Street. Learn more about them...
Quantum Machine Learning - Computerphile
23.7.2026
Exploring how quantum computing can have an impact on the established area of Machine Learning. Professor Mohammad Reza Mousavi is a Professor of Software Engineering in the Department of Informatics at King's College London....
GPS Hidden Messages - Computerphile
16.7.2026
Something odd was going on with the signals broadcast by the GPS satellites. Steven Murdoch of University College London explains how he used statistical analysis to work out what might be going on. To...
Shor's Algorithm for Quantum Computing - Computerphile
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We brought a computer scientist and a physicist together to talk about Shor's algorithm - a famous factorisation algorithm for that can break some currently used encryption techniques if implemented in the quantum realm....
Why AI Tokens are so Expensive - Computerphile
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Why AI is like a (Clever Hans) Horse - Computerphile
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Is it Possible to Block Childrens' Access to Social Media? - Computerphile
16.6.2026
With the UK planning to follow Australia in a ban on social media for under 16s, we ask how it might work? Dr Mike Pound is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham....
TCP b : Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease & 'Slow Start' - Computerphile
15.6.2026
Network Basics story continues with the second part of the TCP segment. Richard G Clegg is based at Queen Mary University London. Richard's Code: https://github.com/richardclegg/computerphile_demos/ RFC 5681 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5681 Computerphile is supported by Jane Street....
TCP a : Ensuring Your Data Gets There & in the Right Order! - Computerphile
13.6.2026
Continuing the deep dive down the network stack, Richard begins the story of TCP. Richard G Clegg is based at Queen Mary University London. Next in the playlist: https://youtu.be/nKVML4YaBqs RFC793 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc793 RFC 9293 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9293...
Fuzzing Programs to Find Bugs - Computerphile
4.6.2026
Fuzzing is a technique to find programming bugs by testing with random inputs - but there are smarter ways to go about it! Professor Alastair F Donaldson leads the Multicore Programming research group at...
Human Readable Code - Computerphile
29.5.2026
Knuth talked about "Literate Programming" over forty years ago, but what does it mean to have code that a developer and a client can agree on? Dr Robert Chatley of Imperial College London demonstrates...
The "Trick" that Compilers Use for Long Division - Computerphile
26.5.2026
Long division can be arduous - division in general is something that even computer processors try to avoid with a simple technique. Matt Godbolt demos it and then shows how a simple C program...
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