Why do we put up with the corruption of the word “algorithm”?

Question

When people use the phrase in pop media, they usually mean something like "recommendation engine". Sure, it probably has some sort of novel algorithm involved, but you could just as well call it a "program". It doesn't sufficiently describe what you think you're describing.It's a very broad and basic term, and now lay people are given the impression that the word means some sort of AI. They sometimes even half-jokingly talk about "The Algorithm" as some sort of mystical force.I'm shocked that I'm basically the only computer person I know of who complains about this. No math people either! And at this point tech people seem to be misusing it.I know this is a waste of energy and "algorithm" will go the way of "literally" but I don't want to go down without a fight.

nonrandomstring · Accepted Answer

Hacker now means criminal. Crypto now means digital money. AI now means any three lines of code that take input and store something. As Wittgenstein put it, words don't have "meaning" the way phenomenologists think of meaning... they stand in for feelings the same way the Ooooowwch!! represents the event of hitting your finger with a hammer. Once people have lazily bound these noises to vague confusions and prejudices, there's no unbinding them.Let "algorithm" go and accept that in most people's minds, knowing swap-sort makes you a sinister Illuminati manipulator, and using rot-13 makes you a criminal mastermind who trades small children for bitcoins on the darknet.

smoldesu · Answer

I frankly don't care. Whenever I hear someone complain about how "the algorithm" is trying to feed them liberal/centrist/conservative propaganda, I just sip my drink and let them tire themselves out trying to explain how awful this purported all-seeing AI is. More often than not, it becomes apparent that their repeated interaction with posts they despise is what drives their unhealthy recommendation loop.