system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Dropbox's new Lepton compression algorithm

Hearing a lot about it, especially the "middle-out" compression bit a la Silicon Valley. Would love to understand how it works. Reading their blog post doesn't elucidate much for me.
gpt
In the new algorithm the 'middle-out' compression accounts for about 5% of the 22% reduction in JPGs that it can achieve. They accomplish this by using the predictable way in which JPGs store brightness to remove pieces of data were the brightness of the pixel is predictable based on the pixels around it. The other 17% comes from TONS of other methods of compression many of which are well known but only work for JPGs.

middle-out is still a made up for hollywood concept that just happened to be explained on the show in a way that lined up with what Dropbox accomplished.