Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2021
From ACM News
Scientists May Have Solved Ancient Mystery of 'First Computer'
Researchers claim breakthrough in study of 2,000-year-old Antikythera mechanism, an astronomical calculator found in sea
From ACM TechNews
How to Spot Deepfakes? Look at Light Reflection in the Eyes
A new tool can automatically identify deepfake photos of people by analyzing light reflections in their eyes for minute deviations.
From ACM TechNews
Large Computer Language Models Carry Environmental, Social Risks
Researchers warn fast-growing natural-language models can worsen environmental and social issues as the amount of training data increases.
From ACM TechNews
Double-Masking Benefits Are Limited, Japan Supercomputer Finds
Double-masking yields limited benefits compared to a single well-fitted disposable mask, according to an analysis conducted with a Japanese supercomputer.
From ACM TechNews
Trading Chicken Parts is Going Digital
Ashley Honey at New Zealand-based Nui hopes to use his company's electronic trading platforms to automate trading of meat and poultry products.
From ACM TechNews
Bug Bounties: More Hackers Spotting Vulnerabilities Across Web, Mobile, IoT
HackerOne's 2021 Hacker Report reveals a 63% jump in the number of ethical hackers submitting vulnerabilities to bug bounty programs during the last year.
From ACM TechNews
Israel Allocates $60 Million to Build First Quantum Computer
Israel's Innovation Authority and Defense Ministry have committed $60 million to building the country's first quantum computer.
From ACM TechNews
Eagle-Inspired Robot Flies by Flapping Its Feather-Covered Wings
Researchers in China were inspired by a golden eagle to build a robotic bird with flapping wings covered in actual feathers.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Exploit Websites to Give Them Excellent SEO Before Deploying Malware
Cybersecurity researchers have found hackers are using search engine optimization to push compromised websites higher up Google's rankings.
From ACM TechNews
Building Networks Not Enough to Expand Rural Broadband
Cornell University researchers found that closing the digital divide in rural areas will require more than public grants to build broadband networks.
From ACM News
Majorana Meltdown Jeopardizes Microsoft's Quantum Computer
Majorana particles would make perfect qubits to build a large quantum computer, but their creation and detection in 2018 was probably no more than overinterpreted noise. Lead scientist Leo Kouwenhoven's integrity is now under…
From ACM News
Russia Says It Is Slowing Access to Twitter
Moscow accused the social network of failing to remove content it deemed illegal. Soon after, a raft of government websites suffered a short outage.
From ACM News
Your Loved Ones, and Eerie Tom Cruise Videos, Reanimate Unease With Deepfakes
A tool that allows old photographs to be animated, and viral videos of a Tom Cruise impersonation, shined new light on digital impersonations.
From ACM News
Furious AI Researcher Creates a List of Non-reproducible Machine Learning Papers
The Papers Without Code website aims to create a centralized list of machine learning papers that are not implementable.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Researchers Report Advance in Computer Vision
A software toolkit developed by Facebook's artificial intelligence research arm could enable companies to create computer vision software more quickly.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Are Peering Inside Computer Brains. What They've Found Will Surprise You
Researchers at research company OpenAI developed new techniques to examine the inner workings of neural networks to help interpret their decision-making.
From ACM TechNews
Storing the Declaration of Independence in a Single Molecule
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine are using an artificial variation of DNA for data storage.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Breach Thousands of Security Cameras, Exposing Tesla, Jails, Hospitals
Hackers say they have compromised data from as many as 150,000 surveillance cameras, including footage from electric vehicle company Tesla.
From ACM TechNews
Magnetic Boost Helps to Squeeze More Data Onto Computer Hard Disks
A short-term technology may help clear a path toward next-generation computer hard disks by utilizing microwaves with existing platter material.
From ACM TechNews
Drones vs. Hungry Moths: Dutch Use Tech to Protect Crops
Dutch farmers are adopting palm-sized drones to protect their crops against moths.
From ACM News
Microsoft-led Team Retracts Quantum 'Breakthrough'
Microsoft's 2018 paper claimed to have observed evidence supporting Majorana particles' existence.
From ACM TechNews
Smaller, Faster, Greener
Researchers have found that hardware manufacturing and infrastructure account for the most emissions associated with modern mobile and datacenter equipment.
From ACM TechNews
An Autonomous High-Speed Transporter for Tomorrow's Logistics
Automated aerial vehicles guided by artificial intelligence are under development to enhance logistics.
From ACM TechNews
Singapore Eyes More Cameras, Technology to Boost Law Enforcement
Singapore intends to utilize more cameras and technology to support law enforcement and first responders.
From ACM News
Synthetic Data: Even Better than the Real Thing?
Societal issues and new tools are driving synthetic data uptake. How does it stack up against its real-life counterpart?
From ACM News
A.I. Here, There, Everywhere
Many of us already live with artificial intelligence now, but researchers say interactions with the technology will become increasingly personalized.
From ACM News
Japanese Smart City Offers Residents Quake, Privacy Protection
After the 2011 earthquake, local governments have partnered with companies and researchers to improve residents' lives
From ACM News
Google Employee Group Urges Congress to Strengthen Whistleblower Protections for AI Researchers
A letter published by Google employees aired support of the Ethical AI team at Google and its former co-leads, both of whom were fired.
From ACM TechNews
Ghana Using Drones to Deliver Coronavirus Vaccines to Rural Communities
San Francisco-based startup Zipline is delivering coronavirus vaccines to rural communities in Ghana via autonomous drones.
From ACM TechNews
The Robots Are Coming for Phil in Accounting
Many U.S. companies are adopting software to perform tasks that previously involved teams of employees, and white-collar workers are concerned.