Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2021
From ACM TechNews
Insurers Increase Investments in Drones, Robots
International Data Corp. predicts the insurance industry will spend approximately $602 million globally on robotic systems, including drones, this year.
From ACM TechNews
Alphabet's Wing Tests Drone Deliveries From Shopping Center Rooftops in Australia
Alphabet subsidiary Wing has launched a drone delivery pilot program in Logan, Australia.
From ACM TechNews
Los Alamos Scientists Take Top Prizes in National Competition to Help Improve Electrical Grid
Hassan Hijazi and Carleton Coffrin of Los Alamos National Laboratory earned top prizes in a national contest to develop algorithms to enhance the electrical grid.
From ACM News
Interacting With Computers Through Smell
Odors could help direct attention in virtual environments, among other things.
From ACM News
'Potentially Disastrous' Data Breach Hits Livestreaming Site Twitch
A spokesman for Check Point said it was the company's "strong suspicion" that Twitch's code had truly been leaked, which was "potentially disastrous."
From ACM TechNews
Venice, Overwhelmed by Tourists, Tries Tracking Them
The leaders of Venice, Italy, are gathering the cellphone data of tourists and are using it, along with surveillance cameras, to monitor them.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Finds Lost Items
A robotic arm can track down lost items using a camera and radio frequency antenna attached to its gripper.
From ACM TechNews
DeFi Platform Mistakenly Sends $89 Million; CEO Begs Return
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Compound mistakenly sent users almost $90 million in cryptocurrency due to a bug in a recent update.
From ACM TechNews
Google to Pay Developers to Make Open Source Projects More Secure
Google is investing $1 million in the Linux Foundation's Secure Open Source pilot program to make open source projects more secure.
From ACM TechNews
Making Self-Driving Cars Human-Friendly
A drift diffusion model could make self-driving vehicles safer for pedestrians by helping to predict when people will cross the road.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Predicts Weather for Individual Farms
Microsoft’s DeepMC framework uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict local weather.
From ACM News
Intel's Neuromorphic Chip Gets Major Upgrade
Loihi 2 packs 1 million neurons in a chip half the size of its predecessor.
From ACM News
Zuckerberg Hits Back at Facebook Whistleblower Claims
Frances Haugen's testimony that social networking company puts profit before people just not true."
From ACM News
Facebook Whistle-Blower Urges Lawmakers to Regulate the Company
Frances Haugen, who left the social network in May and leaked internal documents, gave senators rare insight into its inner workings.
From ACM News
Chip Shortages Likely To Linger Through 2022
Building capacity for new chips is a lengthy process.
From ACM News
Facebook Explains What Caused Its Widespread Outage
The social network's services, including Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, were offline for about six hours on Monday.
From ACM TechNews
FDA Authorizes AI Software Designed to Help Spot Prostate Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week authorized the use of the first artificial intelligence tool designed to help diagnose prostate cancer.
From ACM TechNews
Alphabet's Waymo, GM's Cruise Get California DMV Approval to Run Commercial Autonomous Car Services
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has granted General Motors' Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo autonomous vehicle deployment permits.
From ACM TechNews
Trust Still at Heart of NHS COVID App Reluctance
A survey of more than 1,000 U.K. residents showed high compliance among the half of participants who had downloaded the National Health Service App.
From ACM News
Google Pledges $1 Million to Secure Open Source Software
Google's Open Source Security Team is starting with a $1-million investment, and plans to expand the program's scope based on community feedback.
From ACM News
Post-Quantum Cryptography: Protecting Today from Tomorrow
Crafting more difficult algorithms to protect secrets so they are resilient to future quantum computers is creating, in effect, post-quantum cryptography.
From ACM News
Government Secretly Orders Google To Identify Anyone Who Has Searched A Name, Address, Telephone Number
The U.S. government is secretly ordering Google to provide data on anyone typing in certain search terms, an accidentally unsealed court document shows.
From ACM News
Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew
A trove of leaked documents, published by The Wall Street Journal, hints at a company whose best days are behind it.
From ACM News
Gone in Minutes, Out for Hours: Outage Shakes Facebook
When apps used by billions of people worldwide blinked out, lives were disrupted, businesses were cut off from customers — and some Facebook employees were locked out of their offices.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Take Over Italy's Vineyards as Wineries Struggle with COVID-19 Worker Shortages
Vintners are turning to automation amid pandemic-driven labor shortages.
From ACM TechNews
Ocean Drone Captures Video From Inside Hurricane
An uncrewed surface vehicle built by California-based company Saildrone shot video from inside a hurricane.
From ACM TechNews
Widely Used Bitcoin ATMs Have Major Security Flaws
Security researchers at crypto exchange Kraken warn that many bitcoin ATMs contain serious vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.
From ACM TechNews
Exoskeleton Research Demonstrates Importance of Training
Stanford University scientists found training is critical for reaping the benefits of exoskeleton use.
From ACM TechNews
Tying Quantum Computing to AI Prompts Smarter Power Grid
Combining quantum computing with artificial intelligence could lead to the rapid diagnosis and identification of remedies for electrical grid problems.
From ACM TechNews
X-Ray Technology Reveals Marie Antoinette's Censored Secret Correspondence
Technology has retrieved secret correspondence from French queen Marie-Antoinette to Swedish count Axel von Fersen, that a censor blotted out with dark ink.