Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2017
From ACM TechNews
Towards Data Storage at the Single Molecule Level
Researchers have developed a process for storing information on a single spin-crossover molecule.
From ACM TechNews
AI Will Replace Coders By 2040, Warn Academics
Coders and programmers could find themselves becoming marginalized by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Reality sers Must Learn to se What They See
A new study has found virtual reality users need training to effectively perceive and use virtual imagery.
From ACM News
Dubious Claim of Week: Air Force's 'emp Missile' Could Disable N. Korean Icbms
On Monday, NBC Nightly News broadcast a report claiming that White House officials had discussed using an experimental weapon to disrupt or disable a North Korean missile launch.
From ACM News
Found: Most Distant Black Hole
Scientists have uncovered a rare relic from the early universe: the farthest known supermassive black hole. This matter-eating beast is 800 million times the mass of our Sun, which is astonishingly large for its young age.
From ACM TechNews
The Next Big Step For Ai? Understanding Video
The Moments in Time Dataset is a massive archive of three-second video clips annotated with minute details of the action being performed.
From ACM TechNews
New Robots Can See Into Their Future
Visual foresight is a new learning technology enabling robots to foresee the outcome of their actions..
From ACM TechNews
Robot Learning Improves Student Engagement
Online students who use innovative robots feel more engaged and connected to the instructor and students in the classroom.
From ACM TechNews
h Manoa Field Testing Mobile App For Visually Impaired at Yosemite National Park
Researchers recently conducted a user test of the UniD mobile app, which is designed to make brochures at national parks accessible to the visually impaired.
From ACM News
In Pursuit of an Artificial Brain
Researchers are creating artificial life to take thinking beyond the human realm; the approach could redefine artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
Will Tech Firms Challenge China's 'open' Internet?
Sometimes you can gauge how proud someone is about being at an event by the extent to which they want to talk about it.
From ACM News
Google Missed Out on China. Can It Flourish in India?
Every month, about four million more Indians get online. They include people like Manju, a 35-year-old seamstress in this city of ancient palaces, who got her first internet phone last week.
From ACM Careers
Demand For AI Talent Turns Once-Staid Conference Into Draft Day
Actors in robot costumes stood in the lobby of the Westin hotel in Long Beach, California on Sunday night, "Intel Inside" stickers displayed on their foam torsos.
From ACM News
Taking a Second Look at the Learn-to-Code Craze
Over the past five years, the idea that computer programming–or "coding"–is the key to the future for both children and adults alike has become received wisdom in the U.S.
From ACM TechNews
Schools Dive In to Computer Science Education Week
This year's Computer Science Education Week, which started Monday, continues an ongoing effort to encourage K-12 students to engage with coding and computer science.
From ACM TechNews
New Software Can Verify Someone's Identity By Their Dna in Minutes
Researchers have developed a new method to quickly and accurately identify people and cell lines from their DNA.
From ACM TechNews
Butterfly Pattern Emerges From Quantum Simulation
Researchers have simulated the energy spectrum predicted for two-dimensional electrons in a magnetic field, known as the Hofstadter butterfly.
From ACM TechNews
Phones Vulnerable to Location Tracking Even When Gps Services Off
PinMe is an application that can pinpoint and monitor people via their smartphones even when global-positioning system data access is deactivated.
From ACM TechNews
More Realistic Ar Display Places Digital Images Among Real Objects
A prototype augmented reality display can show a virtual image that both blocks real-world objects sitting behind it and can itself be blocked by other real-world objects placed in front of it.
From ACM TechNews
Making AI 'intentional'
A new game-playing artificial intelligence program is imbued with social reasoning and "intentionality."
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Predicts Outcomes of Chemical Reactions
By thinking of atoms as letters and molecules as words, artificial intelligence software from IBM is now employing the same methods computers use to translate languages to predict outcomes of organic chemical reactions, which…
From ACM News
How AI Will Invade Every Corner of Wall Street
It was AI versus Warren Buffett.
From ACM TechNews
Helping Hands Guide Robots as They Learn
A new program guides robots toward the most helpful ways to collaborate on tasks, with the goal of simplifying the training of robots to work efficiently with humans.
From ACM TechNews
The ltimate Defense Against Hackers May Be Just a Few Atoms Thick
A new class of unclonable cybersecurity primitives has been made from a low-cost nanomaterial with the highest possible level of structural randomness.
From ACM TechNews
Google Has Released an AI Tool That Makes Sense of Your Genome
Google has released an artificial intelligence tool that uses gene sequencing data to build a more accurate genomic model.
From ACM News
The Quantum Threat to Cryptocurrencies
Quantum computing could fundamentally break cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and throw markets into turmoil.
From ACM News
Judea Pearl to Receive Inaugural lf Grenander Prize in Stochastic Theory and Modeling
Pearl, a professor of computer science and statistics at the University of California Los Angeles, was the recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award for 2011.
From ACM News
China's A.i. Advances Help Its Tech Industry, and State Security
During President Trump's visit to Beijing, he appeared on screen for a special address at a tech conference.
From ACM News
Future Wars May Depend as Much on Algorithms as on Ammunition, Report Says.
The Pentagon is increasingly focused on the notion that the might of U.S. forces will be measured as much by the advancement of their algorithms as by the ammunition in their arsenals.
From ACM TechNews
New Research Creates a Computer Chip That Emulates Human Cognition
Researchers have developed a chip that contains about 5.4 billion transistors and 1 million "neurons" that communicate via 256 million "synapses."