Published on January 6, 2025 at 11:21. / Modified on January 6, 2025 at 11:23.
3 mins. reading
In the current usage of our societies connected to a whole bunch of things whose metabolism we do not necessarily understand, the term “algorithm” has almost become synonymous with an evil and intrusive entity which releases an incredible amount onto the feeds of our social networks. quantity of advertisements supposed to correspond to our tastes, our nature, or our age – “How to lose belly fat after 50? Click here!”
Etymologically, however, an algorithm (the term comes to us from Arabic, like “alcohol” or “algebra”) is both more and less than that. We will remember the definition given in France by the CNIL (National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties): “An algorithm is the description of a series of steps making it possible to obtain a result from elements provided as input. For example, a cooking recipe is an algorithm for obtaining a dish from its ingredients!” To put it another way: as soon as there is a rule, there are algorithms.
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