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UPDATE: Sunday, 10:15am PT: Mark Perlin, the chief scientist and executive officer of Cybergenetics, says in an e-mail and telephone interview with Ars that "source code is not used to assess forensic software reliability." (More below.)
originally posted by: tanka418
And it is absolutely true, n fact, the source code won' to help you to understand the results, only how they are reached in "this instance" (there are many ways to reach the same results).
originally posted by: ArMaP
originally posted by: tanka418
And it is absolutely true, n fact, the source code won' to help you to understand the results, only how they are reached in "this instance" (there are many ways to reach the same results).
In my opinion both things are important in this case, as people's lives may be affected by it.
Yes, looking at the source code doesn't say what the result will be, but it can show you if there are any errors or "features" (like in the VW case) that may be looking for specific data to give specific results.
Imagine that someone added some code that identified some specific DNA characteristics and gave always positive (or negative) results. You can only find that if you test all possibilities or if you look at the source code.