Algorithm
알고리즘
A set of steps and methods decided in advance to solve a problem. A computer works by following those steps.
Overview
An algorithm is a procedure that says what to take in, what steps to process it in, and what to give out. Finding the shortest route, putting names in alphabetical order and ranking search results all use algorithms.
When a video app picks what you should watch next, that is a recommendation algorithm. In the past, people wrote the rules directly, but now an AI model that learned from data often makes that judgment. So sometimes even the people who built it cannot fully explain why a result came out as it did.
An everyday example
It is like a recipe. Take the ingredients, chop and fry them in the set order, and you get a dish. Whoever follows the same steps gets the same dish.
Why it matters
It shows up often in the news, in phrases like "videos picked by the algorithm" and "algorithm manipulation controversy." It matters because what the algorithm picks by changes what information we see.