Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2017
From ACM News
Apple Removes New York Times App in China
Apple has removed the New York Times app from its store in China after a government request, in an example of how far the company will go to please the authorities in its third-largest market.
From ACM News
Google Reveals Secret Test of AI Bot to Beat Top Go Players
A mystery player causing a stir in the world of the complex strategy game Go has been revealed as an updated version of AlphaGo, the artificial-intelligence program created by Google's London-based AI firm, DeepMind.
From ACM News
Some Bizarre Black Holes Put On Light Shows
People think of black holes as nightmare vacuum cleaners, sucking in everything in reach, from light to stars to Matthew McConaughey in the movie Interstellar. But, in real life, black holes don't consume everything that they…
From ACM TechNews
A Digital Portrayal of James Joyce's 'portrait'
Computer scientists and literature scholars at University College Dublin in Ireland have teamed up to create a multimedia version of James Joyce's novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
From ACM TechNews
In the Twinkling of an Eye
The process of automatically tracking the direction of a person's gaze is making significant progress.
From ACM TechNews
Can Paint Strokes Help Identify Alzheimer's?
Researchers at Maynooth University in Ireland and the University of Liverpool in the U.K. found it may be possible to use fractal analysis to detect neurodegenerative disorders in artists before they are diagnosed.
From ACM TechNews
Supercomputing Subatomic Particle Research on Titan
Joint research by the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and NVIDIA is aimed at developing improved quantum chromodynamics codes for graphics-processing units using the Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National…
From ACM TechNews
Streamlining the Internet of Things and Other Cyber-Physical Systems
Researchers at Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) and other institutions have developed a framework to enhance research on cyber-physical systems via streamlined design.
From ACM TechNews
5 Big Predictions For Artificial Intelligence in 2017
Among the expected advancements in artificial intelligence for 2017 is progress in applying deep reinforcement learning to real-world challenges such as automated driving and industrial robotics.
From ACM News
Trump Questions Quest For Cybersecurity: 'no Computer Is Safe'
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned whether critical computer networks can ever be protected from intruders, alarming cybersecurity experts who say his comments could upend more than a decade of national cybersecurity…
From ACM News
Intel Finds Moore's Law’s Next Step at 10 Nanometers
These days, forecasts about the future of Moore's Law tend to look quite gloomy. But Intel's outlook—at least for the next few years—is decidedly bright.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Working on sing Dna For Computers
Researchers at Brock University in Canada have developed a strategy that simplifies the design of DNA circuits, which eventually could be used in a DNA computer.
From ACM TechNews
Team at Rice Builds Machine to Transform the Way We Vote
Rice University researchers say they have developed a prototype voting machine designed to restore faith and trust in the U.S. election system.
From ACM TechNews
Mit's Foundry Interface Is the Photoshop of 3D Printing
MIT CSAIL has developed Foundry, a new interface for MultiFab, a multi-material printer unveiled last year.
From ACM News
Space Timekeeping: Nasa's Sdo Adds Leap Second to Master Clock
On Dec. 31, 2016, official clocks around the world will add a leap second just before midnight Coordinated Universal Time—which corresponds to 6:59:59 p.m. EST. NASA missions will also have to make the switch, including the Solar…
From Communications of the ACM
Bias in Technology
As leading companies release troubling diversity statistics, experts search for solutions.
From Communications of the ACM
Pure Randomness Extracted from Two Poor Sources
Developments from several disparate areas of computer science provide "a huge jump, both technically and also quantitatively."
From Communications of the ACM
Mapping the Internet of Things
Researchers are discovering surprising new risks across the fast-growing IoT.