Not to say that the journalists and editors involved with putting out clickbait like this don't deserve to be harangued (they do), but: > An algorithm is just

Not to say that the journalists and editors involved with putting out clickbait like this don't deserve to be harangued (they do), but: > An algorithm is just a method saved in a computer No it isn't "just" that. It's quite a bit more specific than that. For a sequence of steps to be an algorithm, it has to: 1. provably terminate, with— 2. the correct answer (Every time, that is.) Recommender systems and other programs created to help with things that have no correct answer belong to a class of procedures that are the exact opposite of what the word "algorithm" is supposed to communicate. Anyone who has gotten paid to write something that involved the word "algorithm" in the last 10 years should give serious consideration to jumping off a bridge.