Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2018
From ACM TechNews
Self-Driving Car Dilemmas Reveal That Moral Choices Are Not niversal
The largest-ever multinational survey on machine ethics found many moral precepts that guide a driver's decisions are not universal.
From ACM TechNews
Tiny Drones Team p to Open Doors
Researchers have developed palm-sized drones that can forcefully tug objects 40 times their own mass by anchoring themselves to the ground or to walls.
From ACM TechNews
Bible Helps AI Gain in Translation
Dartmouth College researchers used the Bible to improve computer-based text translation.
From ACM TechNews
Bot Disguised as a Human Software Developer Fixes Bugs
A new software bot can find bugs in code and write patches with effectiveness comparable to that of human developers.
From ACM TechNews
Hyundai Brings Wearable Robotics to Factories
The Hyundai Motor Group plans to expand the use of wearable robots at its manufacturing facilities, even as it aims to grow robotics as a source of revenue.
From ACM News
What Comes After the Roomba?
It has been 16 years since the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner was introduced by iRobot.
From ACM News
With 5G, You Won't Just Be Watching Video. It'll Be Watching You, Too
Remember the last time you felt terrified during a horror movie? Take that moment, and all the suspense leading up to it, and imagine it individually calibrated for you.
From ACM News
Teleportation Over a 6-Kilometre Cable, Courtesy of Quantum Powers
The fibre-optic cables that carry Internet traffic can also be used for a powerful form of the strange phenomenon known as quantum teleportation.
From ACM News
Baidu's AI Can Do Simultaneous Translation Between Any Two Languages
Would-be travelers of the galaxy, rejoice: The Chinese tech giant Baidu has invented a translation system that brings us one step closer to a software Babel fish.
From ACM News
Recruiting With Virtual Reality
As the market for new employees grows increasingly competitive, some recruiters use virtual reality applications to attract qualified candidates.
From ACM TechNews
The Computer Chauffeur Is Creeping Closer
With artificial intelligence discreetly improving driving safety, the technology is likely to find its way into luxury vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Invention Builds Memory Walls to Protect Against Meltdown, Spectre Attacks
A new system can more effectively protect modern PC architectures against vulnerabilities exploited by malware like Meltdown and Spectre, researchers say.
From ACM TechNews
New Data Science Method Makes Charts Easier to Read at a Glance
Researchers have developed a technique to measure visual complexity by supplying a score that automatically identifies difficult charts.
From ACM TechNews
Brain-Inspired Algorithm Helps AI Systems Multitask and Remember
Researchers have found that adapting a well-known brain mechanism can dramatically improve the ability of artificial neural networks to learn multiple tasks.
From ACM News
Here's What the Quantum Internet Has in Store
A future 'quantum internet' could find use long before it reaches technological maturity, a team of physicists predicts.
From ACM News
NOAA Is About to Make Some Big Changes to Its Global Weather Model
The nation's weather and climate organization, NOAA, has appointed a new director of its Environmental Modeling Center.
From ACM News
Your Brain Is Like 100 Billion Mini-Computers All Working Together
Each of our brain cells could work like a mini-computer, according to the first recording of electrical activity in human cells at a super-fine level of detail.
From ACM TechNews
3D-Printed Supercapacitor Electrode Breaks Records in Lab Tests
Researchers have developed supercapacitor electrodes using a printable graphene aerogel to build a porous three-dimensional scaffold equipped with pseudocapacitive material.
From ACM TechNews
Will There Be a Ban on Killer Robots?
A group of arms control advocates, humans rights groups, and technologists is lobbying the United Nations to craft a global decree that bans autonomous weapons.
From ACM TechNews
Perfecting Crops With AI-Powered Indoor Farms
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory's Open Agriculture Initiative has developed a self-contained indoor farm.
From ACM TechNews
The White House Is Wooing Tech Workers to Do Tours of Duty in Government
White House officials has been meeting with technology giants to try to persuade them to allow their employees to take leaves of absence to help modernize government agencies.
From ACM TechNews
How Smartphone Apps Track sers and Share Data
Researchers analyzing about 33% of the Android apps in the Google Play Store found almost nine out of 10 track smartphone data and transmit it back to Google.
From ACM TechNews
Manufacturers Adopt Robots That Help Human Workers, Not Replace Them. For Now.
Collaborative robots, or “cobots,” are becoming an increasingly popular automation tool for manufacturers seeking to boost productivity.
From ACM News
.S. Begins First Cyberoperation Against Russia Aimed at Protecting Elections
The United States Cyber Command is targeting individual Russian operatives to try to deter them from spreading disinformation to interfere in elections, telling them that American operatives have identified them and are tracking…
From ACM TechNews
AI on a MEMS Device Brings Neuromorphic Computing to the Edge
Researchers have outfitted a micro-electromechanical system with artificial intelligence, enabling neuromorphic computing in a microscale device and bringing edge computing closer.
From ACM TechNews
Automated System Identifies Dense Tissue, a Risk Factor for Breast Cancer, in Mammograms
A new automated system assesses dense breast tissue in mammograms as reliably as human radiologists.
From ACM TechNews
Data on Demand: Creating a Search Engine for Microbiome Sciences
The University of Arizona's Hurwitz Laboratory is helping researchers around the world gain greater access to data collected at remote ocean sites.
From ACM News
Chip Implants Get Real
The notion of using implantable chips to authenticate people is gaining support, but it raises important privacy questions.
From ACM Opinion
I Fell for Facebook Fake News. Here's Why Millions of You Did, Too.
The Facebook video is nuts, but I can't tear my eyes away. A plane, struggling in a huge storm, does a 360-degree flip before safely landing and letting out terrified passengers.
From ACM News
Scientists Help Robots 'Evolve.' Weirdness Ensues
Evolution is a trip. On the one hand, it's a seemingly simple mechanism—those best fitted to their environment have more babies, while less fit individuals don't reproduce as much, and their genes filter out of the system.