What is an “algorithm”? It depends whom you ask

MIT Technology Review – “…In statistics and machine learning, we usually think of the algorithm as the set of instructions a computer executes to learn from data. In these fields, the resulting structured information is typically called a model. The information the computer learns from the data via the algorithm may look like “weights” by which to multiply each input factor, or it may be much more complicated. The complexity of the algorithm itself may also vary. And the impacts of these algorithms ultimately depend on the data to which they are applied and the context in which the resulting model is deployed. The same algorithm could have a net positive impact when applied in one context and a very different effect when applied in another…

Project Information LiteracyProvocation Series – By Barbara Fister February 3, 2021: “As “research it yourself” becomes a rallying cry for promoters of outlandish conspiracy theories with real-world consequences, educators need to think hard about what’s missing from their information literacy efforts. Information systems that we use in our daily lives map the divisions that have become a fixture of American social life, exposing a topology of deep epistemological rifts. Take QAnon, for example. The rise of this multi-headed hydra of conspiracy theories that are factually absurd, yet are widely disseminated online and in public life, shows how a community was able to form itself around a radically divergent set of assumptions about how we know what is real. Those assumptions were not a benign online eccentricity: They fomented violence, including an insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol — and on democracy itself…How could such extravagantly counter-factual beliefs attract so many adherents and cause so much damage to democracy?..”