What is an "algorithm"? It depends whom you ask

Describing a decision-making system as an "algorithm" is often a way to deflect accountability for human decisions. For many, the term implies a set of rules based objectively on empirical evidence or data. It also suggests a system that is highly complex--perhaps so complex that a human would struggle to understand its inner workings or anticipate its behavior when deployed. But is this characterization accurate? For example, in late December Stanford Medical Center's misallocation of covid-19 vaccines was blamed on a distribution "algorithm" that favored high-ranking administrators over frontline doctors. The hospital claimed to have consulted with ethicists to design its "very complex algorithm," which a representative said "clearly didn't work right," as MIT Technology Review reported at the time.