Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2023
From ACM TechNews
'Talking' Concrete Could Help Prevent Traffic Jams, Cut Carbon Emissions
U.S. interstates are preparing to test sensors developed by Purdue University researchers that could help prevent congestion and lower carbon emissions.
From ACM News
How Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant Lost the A.I. Race
The virtual assistants had more than a decade to become indispensable. But they were hampered by clunky design and miscalculations, leaving room for chatbots to rise.
From ACM News
Boosting Photodiode Efficiency to 220%
Researchers at the Netherlands' Eindhoven University of Technology are chasing quantum efficiency.
From ACM News
'Let 1,000 Flowers Bloom': A.I. Funding Frenzy Escalates
In just weeks, a gold rush into artificial intelligence start-ups has become a full-blown mania.
From ACM TechNews
What The First Lung Delivered by Drone Means for Transplant Science
The first successful delivery of a human donor lung by aerial drone in Toronto, Canada, has implications for the future of transplant science.
From ACM TechNews
Meet ALAN, a Robot That Requires Minimal Human Supervision
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed an autonomous robot, ALAN, that can make decisions and complete tasks based on its observations of its environment.
From ACM TechNews
South Korean Girl Band Offers Glimpse into Metaverse
South Korean girl quartet MAVE: exists exclusively in the metaverse.
From ACM News
Technology Innovation in the Insurance Sector
Here's a look at some of the newest technological advancements in the insurance industry.
From ACM News
Microsoft Lays Off Team That Taught Employees How to Make AI Tools Responsibly
As the company accelerates its push into AI products, the ethics and society team is gone.
From ACM News
Passkeys Unlock a New Era for Authentication
A potential alternative to passwords.
From ACM TechNews
Digital Twins Offer Us Access to New Knowledge
Data modeling systems developed by researchers at Norwegian research and development organization SINTEF can extrapolate new insights from vast datasets using digital twins.
From ACM TechNews
They Thought Loved Ones Were Calling for Help. It Was an AI Scam
More sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being used to replicate a person's voice.
From ACM TechNews
Cyborg Technology Analyzes Functional Maturation of Stem-Cell Derived Heart Tissue
A "cyborg" technique developed by Harvard University researchers can monitor the functional maturation of heart tissue using nanoelectronics.
From ACM News
After Bank Debacle, Silicon Valley Reckons With Its Image
Even as start-ups and investors began recovering their money from Silicon Valley Bank, the episode exposed the tech industry's vulnerabilities.
From ACM News
Making Deepfakes Gets Cheaper and Easier Thanks to A.I.
Meme-makers and misinformation peddlers are embracing artificial intelligence tools to create convincing fake videos on the cheap.
From ACM TechNews
AI Re-Creates What People See by Reading Brain Scans
The Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence algorithm can read functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans to replicate images people have recently seen.
From ACM TechNews
Google's PaLM-E Generalist Robot Brain Takes Commands
Researchers at Google and Germany's Technical University of Berlin recently debuted PaLM-E, described as the largest visual-language model ever created.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Paint a Picture of Six Decades of Movies
Computer scientists analyzed the trailers of 29,000 North American movies released from 1960 to 2019 to identify the dominant colors used in individual films, genres, and decades.
From ACM TechNews
Mini Robot Enters Blood Vessels, Completes Surgery
Researchers recently demonstrated that a miniature robot could travel autonomously to a superficial femoral artery in a pig, deliver contrast dye, and return safely to the extraction point.
From ACM TechNews
Drone Maps Previously Uncharted Ocean Floors Off Alaska, California
The Saildrone Surveyor unmanned surface vehicle has completed the mapping of the previously uncharted ocean floor off the Alaska and California coasts.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Make Biosensor for Crop Blight
A molecular sensing system used by researchers at Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem can enter plant cells to identify potential crop diseases.
From ACM News
Material May Offer Key to Solving Quantum Computing Issue
The researchers demonstrated the technique is scalable at the wafer level, which would make it an attractive option for future quantum computing.
From ACM News
COVID Modelers Expand their Missions
Team science is writ (very) large.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Develop Tool to Identify Existing Drugs to Use in Future Outbreak
An artificial intelligence algorithm developed by a global team led by researchers at New York University can identify existing drugs that could be repurposed during future pandemics.
From ACM TechNews
Amazon Funded Program Teaches DC Inmates Cloud Computing Skills
A pilot program at a jail in Washington, D.C., funded by an Amazon grant, gave inmates access to a course in basic cloud computing skills.
From ACM TechNews
VR Trains Responders for Mass Casualty Events
Ohio State University said researchers at its College of Medicine have developed a virtual reality training program that represents a mass casualty event realistically.
From ACM TechNews
Stealthy UEFI Malware Bypassing Secure Boot Enabled by Unpatchable Windows Flaw
Researchers at Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET have found the first real-world case of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface malware that can take over a computer's boot process.
From ACM News
The FBI Just Admitted It Bought US Location Data
Rather than obtaining a warrant, the bureau purchased sensitive data—a controversial practice that privacy advocates say is deeply problematic.
From ACM News
Meet DuckAssist, DuckDuckGo's New AI Feature
DuckAssist isn't a chatbot, but it uses artificial intelligence to help answer your questions.
From ACM News
The Chatbots Are Here, and the Internet Industry Is in a Tizzy
The new technology could upend many online businesses. But for companies that figure out how to work with it, A.I. could be a boon.