{"id":541,"date":"2020-10-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/?p=541"},"modified":"2021-06-03T13:04:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T17:04:32","slug":"ai-building-blocks-what-are-algorithms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/2020\/10\/12\/ai-building-blocks-what-are-algorithms\/","title":{"rendered":"AI building blocks: What are algorithms?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In thinking about how to teach non\u2013computer science students about AI, I’ve been considering what fundamental concepts they need to understand. I was thinking about models<\/strong> and how to explain them. My searches led me to this 8-minute BBC video: What exactly is an algorithm?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve explained algorithms to journalism students in the past \u2014 usually I default to the “a set of instructions” definition and leave it at that. What I admire about this upbeat, lively video is not just that it goes well beyond that simple explanation but also that it brings in experts to talk about how various<\/em> and wide-ranging <\/em>algorithms are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young presenter, Jon Stroud, starts out with no clue what algorithms are. He begins with some web searching and finds Victoria Nash, of the Oxford Internet Institute, who provides the “it’s like a recipe” definition. Then he gets up off his butt and visits the Oxford Internet Institute, where Bernie Hogan, senior research fellow, gives Stroud a tour of the server room and a fuller explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Algorithms calculate based on a bunch of features, the sort of things that will put something at the top of the list and then something at the bottom of the list.”<\/p>\u2014Bernie Hogan, Oxford Internet Institute<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He meets up with Isabel Maccabee at Northcoders, a U.K. coding school, and participates in a fun little drone-flying competition with an algorithm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The person writing the code could have written an error, and that’s where problems can arise, but the computer doesn’t make mistakes. It just does what it’s supposed to do.”<\/p>\u2014Isabel Maccabee, Northcoders<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Stroud also visits Allison Gardner, of Women Leading in AI<\/a>, to talk about deskilling and the threats and benefits of computers in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This video provides an enjoyable introduction with plenty of ideas for follow-up discussion. It provides a nice grounding that includes the fact that not everything powerful about computer technology is AI!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a>
\nAI in Media and Society<\/strong><\/span> by Mindy McAdams<\/span> is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.
\nInclude the author’s name (Mindy McAdams) and a link to the original post in any reuse of this content.<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In thinking about how to teach non\u2013computer science students about AI, I’ve been considering what fundamental concepts they need to understand. I was thinking about models and how to explain them. My searches led me to this 8-minute BBC video: What exactly is an algorithm? I’ve explained algorithms to journalism students in the past \u2014… Continue reading AI building blocks: What are algorithms?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,157],"tags":[105,106],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algorithms","category-basics","tag-basics","tag-building_blocks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":550,"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macloo.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}