black box

• Terme désignant un système, un dispositif ou un objet dont le fonctionnement interne est caché ou incompréhensible, l'attention étant portée uniquement sur ses entrées et sorties. Il est utilisé notamment en aviation pour désigner les enregistreurs de vol et en informatique pour les systèmes opaques.

A term referring to a system, device, or object whose internal workings are hidden or not understood, with focus only on its inputs and outputs. Commonly used in aviation for flight recorders, and in computing for opaque systems.

1. Flight recorderB2formal

   A device in an aircraft that records flight data and cockpit conversations for accident investigation.

   Boîte noire (enregistreur de vol)

   • Investigators recovered the black box from the crashed plane.
   • The black box contains crucial data about the flight's final moments.
   • Modern black boxes are designed to withstand extreme conditions.

2. System with hidden workingsC1formal

   A system or process where the internal workings are unknown or hidden, and only the inputs and outputs are visible.

   boîte noire

   • The algorithm functions as a black box, making it hard to understand its decisions.
   • Many AI models are considered black boxes because their reasoning is not transparent.
   • The software's black box nature made debugging difficult.