• Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      The output is not the output of the algorithm, it’s the output of the unit test.

      95% of numbers up to that point at not prime. Testing the algorithm that only says “not prime” is therefore correct 95% of the time. The joke is that, similar to AI, the algorithm is being presented as a useful tool because it’s correct often but not always.

    • anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 hours ago

      The test suite probably looks something like this:

      int tests_passed=0;
      int tests_failed=0;
      for(int i=0;i<100000;i++){
          printf("test no. %d: ", i);
          if(is_prime(i)==actually_is_prime(i)){
              printf("passed\n");
              tests_passed++;
          }else{
              printf("failed\n");
              tests_failed++;
          }
      }
      //...