Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2021
From ACM TechNews
NFTs Are Shaking Up the Art World. They May Be Warming the Planet, Too.
Digital artworks known as nonfungible tokens are selling for massive sums, but research indicates their creation may carry an enormous environmental cost.
From ACM TechNews
One-Stop Machine Learning Platform Turns Healthcare Data Into Insights
Software developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology uses machine learning to transform healthcare data into insights that can inform decision-making.
From ACM TechNews
IT Jobs Grew by 50,000 in March as Companies Invested in Cloud, Remote Work
An recent analysis of federal jobs data found the IT field had its fourth straight month of job growth in March, with U.S. employers hiring 50,000 enterprise technology workers.
From ACM TechNews
Lowe's Puts $1.5 Million Into AI Research at UNC Charlotte
Retailer Lowe's is providing the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with $1.5 million to install an endowed faculty position to lead artificial intelligence and machine learning research.
From ACM News
What Are the Roadblocks to a 'Vaccine Passport'?
Creating a digital certificate of vaccination against the coronavirus is one of the hottest debates right now. What's keeping it from happening, and why are some people opposed?
From ACM News
'It's a Roller-Coaster Ride': Global Chip Shortage Is Making Industries Sweat
The Internet-connected world is completely dependent on the production of semiconductors. That's become a problem now that supplies are running short.
From ACM News
Coinbase's Public Listing Is a Cryptocurrency Coming-Out Party
With acceptance from traditional investors, a profitable start-up that eases transactions is offering proof of the industry's staying power.
From ACM TechNews
Millions of Devices at Risk From NAME:WRECK DNS Bugs
Researchers discovered nine new Domain Name System vulnerabilities that could imperil more than 100 million connected Internet of Things devices.
From ACM TechNews
China's Factories Automate as Worker Shortage Looms
China's working-age population has dropped by more than 5 million in the last decade, and factories are responding to the resulting labor shortage with automation.
From ACM TechNews
French Army Testing Boston Dynamics' Robot Dog Spot in Combat Scenarios
France's military has utilized robotics developer Boston Dynamics' four-legged Spot robot in training exercises, raising questions about the robot's future applications.
From ACM TechNews
People May Trust Computers More Than Humans
Data scientists at the University of Georgia have found that people may be more willing to trust computer programs than fellow humans.
From ACM TechNews
Vibrations From a Smartphone Can Help Spot Unsafe Drinking Water
Vibrations from a smartphone's ringtone can be used to measure a liquid's viscosity, according to researchers at China's Shenzhen University.
From ACM TechNews
Is 'Femtech' the Next Big Thing in Healthcare?
Numerous apps and technology companies are emerging in the "femtech" industry to address women's biological needs.
From ACM News
FBI Launches Operation to Remove Backdoors from Hacked Microsoft Exchange Servers
Hundreds of Exchange servers remain vulnerable because the backdoors are difficult to find and eliminate.
From ACM News
Intel's Latest Hail Mary Is a $20-Billion Bet on American Manufacturing
The chipmaker helped create Silicon Valley—but cultural complacency and a missed mobile boom have left it far behind competitors.
From ACM News
Europeans Can't Talk about Racist AI systems. They Lack the Words.
In Europe, several automated systems, either planned or operational, actively contribute to entrenching racism. But European civil society literally lacks the words to address the issue.
From ACM News
NVIDIA Completely Re-Imagines The Data Center For AI
It is all about tighter integration with memory, CPUs, and accelerators for trillion-parameter AI models.
From ACM News
Where are the Women? Mapping the Gender Job Gap in AI
This policy briefing from the Turing Institute's Women in Data Science and AI project presents new research into gender gaps in artificial intelligence and data science, and the extent and impact of men's dominance in these fields…
From ACM TechNews
Swedish Central Bank Reveals First Study of Digital Currency
Sweden's central bank has released the results of the first phase of a pilot project into what is essentially the most advanced exploration of a post-cash era to be undertaken by a major western economy.
From ACM TechNews
AI Set to Reshape Workplace as Physical Offices Open Up
Artificial intelligence (AI) powered software and platforms will be adopted by more companies as they reopen physical workplaces.
From ACM TechNews
Classify This Robot-Woven Sneaker with 3D-Printed Soles as 'Footware'
Adidas is merging three-dimensional printing and robotic automation to produce mass-market footwear through its Futurecraft.Strung project.
From ACM News
These New Vulnerabilities put Millions of IoT Devices at Risk, so Patch Now
Detailed by researchers at Forescout, the Name:Wreck vulnerabilities could allow attackers to control devices and remotely execute code, act as a gateway to the rest of the network, or even take IoT devices offline.
From ACM News
Student's Physics Homework Picked Up by Amazon Quantum Researchers
The simple but ingenious change to quantum error correcting code has grabbed the attention of quantum researchers.
From ACM News
Democratizing Facial Authentication
Intel's RealSense ID solution performs facial identification on device, not in the cloud.
From ACM News
Microsoft to Buy Nuance for $16 Billion to Focus on Health Care Tech
By acquiring a provider of artificial intelligence software, the tech giant is hoping to bolster its offerings for the fast-growing field of medical computing.
From ACM News
'Master,' 'Slave,' and the Fight Over Offensive Terms in Computing
Nearly a year after the Internet Engineering Task Force took up a plan to replace words that could be considered racist, the debate is still raging.
From ACM News
This AI Could Help Wipe Out Colon Cancer
Medtronic's GI Genius, recently cleared by the FDA, will help doctors identify precancerous polyps.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Algorithm Shows Gender Bias in Job Ads, Study Finds
Facebook disproportionately shows certain types of job ads to men and women, raising questions about efforts to eliminate bias in its algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
AI Could 'Crack the Language of Cancer, Alzheimer's'
A study has found that the "biological language" of cancer, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases can be predicted by machine learning.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Can Be More Aware of Human Co-Workers, with System That Provides Context
Researchers have designed a context-aware system that could enable robots to work alongside humans on assembly lines with greater efficiency, while foregoing needless interruptions.