Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2022
From ACM TechNews
Robots Set Their Sights on New Job: Sewing Blue Jeans
Siemens has been working with clothing companies on efforts to automate apparel manufacturing.
From ACM TechNews
A Faster Way to Preserve Privacy Online
Researchers have developed a method for retrieving private information from a database that is approximately 30 times faster than comparable methods.
From ACM News
Reconfiguring It Out
A researcher plumbs reconfigurable quantum circuits for high-performance computers and cellphones.
From ACM News
The Real Fusion Energy Breakthrough Is Still Decades Away
U.S. nuclear scientists have achieved the long-sought goal of a fusion ignition — but don't expect this clean technology to power the grid yet.
From ACM News
Self-Driving Taxis Are Causing All Kinds of Trouble in San Francisco
They have blocked traffic, driven on the sidewalk, sped away from cops — and the city is powerless to stop them.
From ACM News
Coalition Formed to Increase Hispanic Participation in Computer Science
National nonprofits and organizations unite efforts to boost Hispanic representation in computer science.
From ACM News
The World-Changing Race to Develop the Quantum Computer
Such a device could help address climate change and food scarcity, or break the Internet. Will the U.S. or China get there first?
From ACM TechNews
Computational System Streamlines Design of Fluidic Devices
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers were part of a team that built a new system to simplify the process of designing fluidic devices.
From ACM TechNews
The Highest-Paying College Majors in 2022, Ranked
PayScale's annual ranking of the highest-paying college majors ranks electrical engineering and computer science at No. 1.
From ACM TechNews
This 1980s Programming Language Sparked a Revolution. Now You Can Check Out the Source Code
Adobe gave permission to the Computer History Museum to release the source code for an early version of its PostScript programming language, first released in 1984.
From ACM News
Twitter Disbands Trust and Safety Council
The action comes the same day Twitter moved to boost its revenue not linked to digital advertising by reintroducing a paid-for subscription service that would show fewer ads.
From ACM News
Brain Implants Have Begun to Restore Functions, but Advances Are Slow
But achieving full-body restoration of movement, as Elon Musk envisions with such devices, is considered far into the future, if at all.
From ACM News
Japanese Company's Lunar Lander Launches to the Moon
The company, Ispace, is carrying a rover from the United Arab Emirates, a Japanese robot, and other cargo in its bid to possibly be the first commercial lander to reach the moon.
From ACM News
These Algorithms Are Hunting for an EV Battery Mother Lode
AI trained on reams of geological data can indicate where to dig in search of metals crucial to electric cars and other green technology.
From ACM News
AMD Bets Its Future On Moore's Law
The company says Moore's Law still has a good 6-8 years of life, thanks to next-generation transistor technologies.
From ACM News
The New Chatbots Could Change the World. Can You Trust Them?
Siri, Google Search, online marketing and your child's homework will never be the same. Then there's the misinformation problem.
From ACM TechNews
DeepMind's AlphaCode Can Outcompete Human Coders
DeepMind's AlphaCode model performed well against human coders in a programming competition.
From ACM TechNews
Facial Recognition Technology Scans Your Ear
University of Georgia (UGA) scientists have created an ear recognition system that can authenticate individuals with up to 97.25% accuracy.
From ACM TechNews
Smallest Robotic Arm Is Controlled by AI
Researchers manipulated silver atoms into a lattice configuration via deep reinforcement learning, a critical advance for nanodevice construction.
From ACM News
Attackers Keep Targeting the U.S. Electric Grid
Plus: Chinese hackers stealing U.S. Covid relief funds, a cyberattack on the Met Opera website, and more.
From ACM News
Pentagon Picked Four Tech Companies to Form $9B Cloud Computing Network
Microsoft agrees multi-cloud strategy is "the right one" for U.S. Defense Department.
From ACM TechNews
Cosmic Rays Are Quantum Computers' Kryptonite
University of Chicago researchers reduced the rate of catastrophic quantum computing errors attributable to cosmic rays from about once every 10 seconds to once every 51 days.
From ACM TechNews
LiDAR Technique Could Help Robotic Vehicles Land Safely on Mars
Researchers at the NASA Langley Research Center have developed a LiDAR technique to improve the safety of robotic vehicle landings during future Mars or lunar missions.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Develop Scaled-up Spintronic Probabilistic Computer
Scientists have engineered a scaled-up probabilistic computer (p-computer) with stochastic spintronic devices.
From ACM News
The Brilliance and Weirdness of ChatGPT
A new chatbot from OpenAI is inspiring awe, fear, stunts and attempts to circumvent its guardrails.
From ACM News
How the Global Spyware Industry Spiraled Out of Control
The market for commercial spyware — which allows governments to invade mobile phones and vacuum up data — is booming. Even the U.S. government is using it.
From ACM News
Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Change The World—But At What Cost?
The ethics of neurotechnology lags behind the science.
From ACM News
San Francisco Has Reversed Its Killer Robot Plan
The city rolled back a controversial decision to let robots use lethal force without human intervention. But the fight is far from over.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence is Permeating Business At Last
The age of "boring AI" will be anything but.
From ACM News
FTC Sues to Block Microsoft's Acquisition of Game Giant Activision
The lawsuit marks FTC chair Lina Khan's most significant effort to date to address tech industry consolidation, and it could upend Microsoft's gaming ambitions.