> It’s never been quite clear, she says, whether the phrase—which is frequently the entire output of a student’s first computer program—is supposed to be attrib

> It’s never been quite clear, she says, whether the phrase—which is frequently the entire output of a student’s first computer program—is supposed to be attributed to the program, awakening for the first time, or to the programmer, announcing their triumphant first creation. It seemed perfectly clear to me. "hello world" is the purposed program talking to the user of the computer on behalf of the service provider who wrote the application. The second lesson was then to usually request user input from that user. > We need to make algorithms transparent, regulated, and forgiving of the flawed creatures that converse with them. Do we? Do we really? Pray tell why... > you could just put any old colored liquid in a glass bottle and sell it as medicine and make an absolute fortune. And then not worry about whether or not it’s poisonous. We stopped that from happening because, well, for starters it’s kind of morally repugnant. But also, it harms people. We’re in that position right now with data and algorithms. No, we aren't. "Algorithms" is being abstracted here to mean, presumably, large scale high cost data collection infrastructure and logistics and business. That's not algorithms, it's something else. > You can harvest any data that you want, on anybody. No, you cannot. > You can infer any data that you like, and you can use it to manipulate them in any way that you choose. No, you cannot. > you can roll out an algorithm that genuinely makes massive differences to people’s lives, both good and bad, without any checks and balances. Presumably you mean sell optional, usually free services that people might want to leverage in return for access to their data. In reality there are only a dozen or less companies with reach on the scale that you might even start considering this a problem. Of course not using their services or applying various legislatively controlled options on those platforms protects you fairly well. Also not "algorithms" Perhaps there is some idle minded conflation with the risk associated with data breaches? > A regulatory body that can protect the intellectual property of algorithms, but at the same time ensure that the benefits to society outweigh the harms. Insidious at best. The "algorithm" behind academic consideration of how to employ themselves by intervening in something that doesn't need intervention is certainly something I wish we could "regulate".