Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2022
From ACM TechNews
E-Nose Sniffs Out the Good Whiskey
New research describes an electronic nose that can analyze whiskies and identify a whiskey’s brand with over 95% accuracy after a single whiff.
From ACM News
IonQ Teams with U.S. Department of Energy
IonQ and DoE are trying to create a stable, domestic pipeline for sourcing the barium qubits used in quantum processors built by IonQ.
From ACM News
China Is About to Regulate AI—and the World Is Watching
Sweeping rules will cover algorithms that set prices, control search results, recommend videos, and filter content.
From ACM News
AI Cannot Patent its Own Work, U.S. Copyright Office Rules
Copyright law only protects "the fruits of intellectual labor" that "are founded in the creative powers of the human mind," it says.
From ACM TechNews
Texas Sues Meta's Facebook over Facial-Recognition Practices
The Texas Attorney General's Office has filed suit against Facebook for allegedly violating state law with its facial recognition technology.
From ACM TechNews
AI Can Erase Tattoos from Photos to Help Face Recognition Systems
Researchers trained an algorithm to remove facial tattoos from images, in order to improve facial recognition systems.
From ACM TechNews
Health Researchers Use AI to Better Predict Hepatitis C Treatment Outcomes
Algorithms developed by University of Florida Health researchers employ artificial intelligence to forecast outcomes from treatments for hepatitis C.
From ACM News
Is China's Lithium Quest Fuelled by Business or Politics?
South America contains more than half of the world's reserves of the critical metal that is used in batteries. China is looking for a bigger piece of the pie.
From ACM News
Digital Technology Fans Firefighting
New tools help firefighters identify the dynamics and characteristics of a fire—and respond more effectively.
From ACM News
The World Needs What Intel Makes. Can It Make a Comeback?
Patrick Gelsinger is back running a company he first joined at 18. The chip maker was a Silicon Valley titan that lost its luster. As the world craves chips, the C.E.O. has faith he can fix it all.
From ACM News
Crypto Scammers’ New Target: Dating Apps
"Everything was a lie," said one woman lured into a recent scam.
From ACM News
Underwater Drones Dive to Start Search for Shackleton's Famed Ship
Explorers have started combing the Weddell Sea for Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, which sank in 1915.
From ACM News
The C.D.C. Isn't Publishing Large Portions of the COVID Data It Collects
The agency has withheld critical data on boosters, hospitalizations and, until recently, wastewater analyses.
From ACM TechNews
African Software Developers Use AI to Fight Inequality
Developers like South African computer scientist Raesetje Sefala hope to combat inequality across Africa by harnessing artificial intelligence AI.
From ACM TechNews
Adaptive LED Headlights Get NHTSA Approval in the U.S.
The U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration issued a new rule permitting the use of adaptive LED headlights on U.S. roads.
From ACM TechNews
Fake Faces Created by AI Look More Trustworthy than Real People
Researchers found that people have a hard time distinguishing images of human faces created by artificial intelligence from images of real faces.
From ACM TechNews
Google's 'CEO' Image Search Gender Bias Hasn't Really Been Fixed
University of Washington researchers have disproved Google's claims it corrected gender biases for certain job terms in its image search.
From ACM News
AI Overcomes Stumbling Block on Brain-Inspired Hardware
Algorithms that use the brain's communication signal can now work on analog neuromorphic chips, which closely mimic our energy-efficient brains.
From ACM News
Israel’s 'Microsoft of Quantum Computing' Makes Its Move
It is anticipated quantum computing will revolutionize military, economic, and technological affairs and the basis for encryption of the entire Internet.
From ACM News
Hybrid AI: A New Way to Make Machine Minds that Really Think Like Us
In the quest to make artificial intelligence that can reason and apply knowledge flexibly, many researchers are focused on fresh insights from neuroscience. Should they be looking to psychology too?
From ACM TechNews
Smartphone App Can Vibrate Single Drop of Blood to Determine How Well It Clots
A new test uses a single drop of blood and a smartphone's vibration motor and camera to determine whether blood clots too easily, or not at all.
From ACM TechNews
Clearly, This Heart Beats Strong
Researchers at Rice University and Japan's Waseda University have developed a model that simulates the flow of blood through the heart.
From ACM TechNews
Smartwatch Measures Key Stress Hormone
A new smartwatch can measure cortisol levels in perspiration.
From ACM TechNews
Deepfake Democracy: South Korean Candidate Goes Virtual for Votes
South Korean researchers used artificial intelligence technology to create what is believed to be the world's first official deepfake political candidate.
From ACM News
A Source of Security Challenges for Years to Come
Cybersecurity experts agree the recently uncovered Log4Shell software vulnerability is the most dangerous on record.
From ACM News
Is Firefox Okay?
Mozilla's privacy-heavy browser is flatlining. What it does next is crucial for the future of the web.
From ACM News
Economists Are Revising Their Views on Robots and Jobs
There is little evidence of a pandemic-induced surge in automation.
From ACM News
DeepMind Has Trained an AI to Control Nuclear Fusion
The Google-backed firm taught a reinforcement learning algorithm to control the fiery plasma inside a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Models Show How Crop Production Increases Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions
Scientists used computer models to determine the growth of emissions of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide over the last century by U.S. crop production.
From ACM TechNews
Genetic Database to Identify Missing Persons in El Salvador
A new genetic database was created to identify people who went missing or were adopted illegally during the 1980-1992 war in El Salvador.