[bvod]

"'We’re trying to figure out if we can predict how much shortcutting ants will do given a geometry of their environment,' Garnier said." Garnier clearly states that they haven't figured out the algorithm. Then the separate researcher says “We describe army ants as simple, but we don’t even understand what they’re doing"

[robotresearcher]

Then we disagree about what 'the algorithm' means. They have a bridge-building method, but can't reproduce the ants' decision on where to place them. Place the emphasis where you like to decide if they succeeded or failed.