“The Algorithm” is impenetrable. It’s mysterious, it’s all-knowing, it’s omnipotent. Except that it’s not. An algorithm is a simple concept that, today, has many complex manifestations.

In other domains, what’s described above as a model is itself called an algorithm. Though that’s confusing, under the broadest definition it is also accurate: models are rules (learned by the ...

So, an algorithm is the process a computer uses to transform input data into output data. A simple concept, and yet every piece of technology that you touch involves many algorithms.