Name: What is an algorithm and how do they work? | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2020-04-23T04:37:06.000Z
Duration: 7 min 55 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

Apparently algorithms are in the social media apps we use every day,

Adverbs of degree

I've got absolutely no idea what they actually are

Rather than be baffled by science, I'm going to go find out.

Where does every good piece of research start? A search engine.

A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations

or other problem solving operations, especially by a computer.

After an hour of searching about the internet

So many different definitions without any clarity in what they actually do.

During my search I came across professor Victoria Nash

Speaking to Victoria has helped me understand what algorithms are

but how can the same thing that helps me bake a cake,

also give me the best results from a search engine?

to visit one of Victoria's colleagues, Dr Bernie Hogan.

You know, it's pretty big. It's really noisy.

There's a lot of computation happening here.

Each one of these belong to different departments.

They're doing different kinds of calculations.

going on in all these massive boxes like now?

Shall we go somewhere a little bit quieter

It's weird to think how much of our lives

go on in nondescript server rooms all over the world.

But what exactly are these billions of algorithms doing?

So the reason that we use a list of instructions

is because we have a lot of data and we have to deal with that data.

Which tweet is going to show up at the top of the list?

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.

So if it's that simple, should we be scared of algorithms?

that we perhaps should be a bit concerned about

So is that like, when you search for something

you don't know what their algorithm is doing because we can't see it.

is people talk about searching for prices for flights,

and depending on which day you search on you might get a different flight,

And so this can mean difference of hundreds of pounds.

That's an example where an algorithm is not transparent

Well we wouldn't necessarily think of a computer as thinking,

and algorithms can create their own instructions now.

Data goes in, goes through instructions, result comes out.

but I've still never actually seen an algorithm.

So I'm heading to one of the UK's leading coding schools

to see for myself what goes into making one.

So what's the difference between an algorithm and code?

Coding is algorithms that a computer can run the instructions for you.

which the computer can actually understand.

and it's really nice to use, really intuitive,

and you can just drag and drop these blocks

and we've got these instructions for the drone to follow.

It's going to do a flip. I hope it's going to do a flip.

It's time for a challenge - a drone race.

So the course is through the hoop, do a flip,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

What is an algorithm and how do they work? | BBC Ideas

apparently

overwhelming

trick

flip