Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2023
From ACM News
The GitHub Black Market That Helps Coders Cheat the Popularity Contest
Popularity on GitHub can open valuable doors for developers and startups. Underground stores sell "stars" on the platform, offering coders a way to literally fake it till they make it.
From ACM News
An Industry Insider Drives an Open Alternative to Big Tech's A.I.
The nonprofit Allen Institute for AI, led by a respected computer scientist who sold his company to Apple, is trying to democratize cutting-edge research.
From ACM TechNews
Robotic Prosthetic Ankles Improve 'Natural' Movement, Stability
Researchers demonstrated that nerve impulse-driven robotic prosthetic ankles enable more natural and stable movement by amputees.
From ACM TechNews
Brain-Wave Cap Saves Lives by Identifying Strokes
The StrokePointer brain-wave cap designed by researchers in the Netherlands can diagnose large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke while patients are in an ambulance.
From ACM TechNews
The Race to Save Secrets from Future Computers
China, Russia, and the U.S. are racing to find ways to prevent future quantum computers from cracking long-supported encryption protocols.
From ACM News
Nvidia and iPhone Maker Foxconn to Build 'AI Factories'
Foxconn's Liu told the BBC that electric vehicles will drive the company's growth in the coming decades.
From ACM News
Researchers Say Guardrails Built Around A.I. Systems Are Not So Sturdy
OpenAI now lets outsiders tweak what its chatbot does. A new paper says that can lead to trouble.
From ACM TechNews
Amazon Testing Drone Delivery of Prescriptions
Amazon is testing a drone delivery service for prescription drugs in College Station, TX, with plans to expand the service to other markets in the future.
From ACM TechNews
Datacenters Could Work as Well with Less Cooling
Researchers found running datacenters at higher temperatures could reduce their energy consumption significantly while maintaining computational performance.
From ACM TechNews
Peering Inside a Quantum Computer Creates New Phases of Information
University of Texas at Austin researchers showed how taking certain measurements on a quantum computer results in different phases of quantum information.
From ACM News
Honda to Start Self-Driving Taxi Service in Tokyo, CEO Says
Venture with GM, Cruise aims to eventually have 500 robotaxis.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Receive CODES+ISSS Best Paper Award
The researchers received the best paper award for their proposed chiplet-enabled computer architecture.
From ACM TechNews
AlphaFold, Similar Tools Could Help Preparations for Next Pandemic
Researchers increasingly are using artificial intelligence to help prepare for future pandemics.
From ACM TechNews
Your Face May Soon Be Your Ticket. Not Everyone Is Smiling
The use of facial recognition software to expedite admission to venues like airports and theme parks is raising privacy and security concerns among experts.
From ACM TechNews
AI Approach Yields 'Athletically Intelligent' Robotic Dog
An international team of researchers developed a vision-based algorithm enabling off-the-shelf quadruped robots to move from obstacle to obstacle autonomously and with agility.
From ACM News
China Has a New Plan for Judging the Safety of Generative AI—and it's Packed with Details
A new proposal spells out the very specific ways companies should evaluate AI security and enforce censorship in AI models.
From ACM News
The SEC's Cybersecurity Rules
Public companies now must report material cybersecurity incidents within four business days.
From ACM TechNews
Bionic Hand Integrates with Woman's Nerves, Bones, Muscles
An international research team reported that a robotic hand attached to a Swedish woman in 2017 has fully integrated with her nerves, bones, and muscles since the procedure.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Repositions 7TB 'Project Silica' Glass Media as Cloud Storage Solution
Microsoft said its Project Silica glass media storage technology can retain roughly 1.75 million songs or about 3,500 movies on a palm-sized glass sheet for 10,000 years.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Use Drones to Land Sensors on Threatened Glaciers
Scientists at the U.K.'s University of Southampton built a climate change-monitoring sensor that can be airlifted by drone onto glaciers to measure the effects of global warning.
From ACM News
Should Schools Rely on Government for Cyber Protection?
Can the federal government protect K-12 schools and their students from cyberattacks?
From ACM News
A.I. Tool Diagnoses Brain Tumors on the Operating Table
A new study describes a method for faster and more precise diagnoses, which can help surgeons decide how aggressively to operate.
From ACM TechNews
Can AI Crave a Favorite Food?
Pennsylvania State University' researchers emulated taste's influence on food cravings with an electronic "tongue" and "gustatory cortex" made from two-dimensional materials.
From ACM TechNews
Starlink Carbon Footprint Up to 30 Times Size of Land-Based Internet
Researchers calculated a significant carbon footprint for some Internet service-providing satellite constellations.
From ACM TechNews
Insect Cyborgs: Towards Precision Movement
Researchers explored how electrical stimulation in stick insects' leg muscles relate to the resulting torque for enabling precise motor control of hybrid insect-computer robots.
From ACM News
Wearables Track Parkinson's Better Than Human Observation, Study Finds
The study's authors concluded the sensors proved more effective at tracking the disease progression "than the conventionally used clinical rating scales."
From ACM News
Quantum Repeaters Use Defects in Diamond to Interconnect Quantum Systems
Scientists are now leveraging defects in diamonds to construct quantum repeaters.
From ACM TechNews
Internet Companies Report Biggest-Ever Denial of Service Operation
Technology companies last week reported the Internet's largest known denial of service (DoS) attack.
From ACM TechNews
Medical Imaging Fails Dark Skin. Researchers Fixed It
A team led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University developed a way to produce clear images of anyone's internal anatomy, no matter their skin tone.
From ACM TechNews
Google's Green Light Project Retimes Traffic Lights for 30% Fewer Stops
Google's Project Green Light has partnered with 12 cities worldwide to provide artificial intelligence-based traffic signal timing recommendations.