Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2021
From ACM News
U.S. Says Humans Will Always Be In Control of AI Weapons, but the Age of Autonomous War is Already Here
The Pentagon says a ban on AI weapons isn't necessary, But missiles, guns and drones that think for themselves already kill people in combat, and have been for years.
From ACM News
Hidden Costs, Flawed Training Plague the V.A.'s Huge Software Upgrade
A $16-billion effort to modernize health records at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ran into major problems in its first installation, two watchdog reports say.
From ACM News
Could Gen Z Free the World From Email?
"It's actually crazy how outdated it is." People born after AOL Mail was invented seem to prefer to communicate in almost any other way.
From ACM TechNews
'We Don't Need Another Michelangelo': In Italy, It's Robots' Turn to Sculpt
Scientists at the Robotor laboratory in Carrara, Italy, are developing sculpting robots to keep the country on the artistic forefront.
From ACM TechNews
Meet the Scientist Teaching AI to Police Human Speech
Facebook and Google have engineered artificial intelligence systems capable of understanding dozens of languages through the efforts of scientists like Alexis Conneau.
From ACM TechNews
AI's Role in Debugging Code Expected to Grow
Technology companies are developing artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools to debug code as software maintenance becomes ever more challenging.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Robot Could Help People with Limited Mobility Dress Themselves
Researchers designed an algorithm to help a robot efficiently dress a human, theoretically ensuring human safety by reasoning about the human model's uncertainty.
From ACM TechNews
UOC Team Develops Neural Network to Identify Tiger Mosquitoes
A deep neural network can learn to identify tiger mosquitoes using a large set of images captured on mobile phones and uploaded to the Mosquito Alert platform by volunteers.
From ACM News
Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack
Inside the hacks that lock down computer systems and damage businesses.
From ACM News
A Global Smart-City Competition Highlights China's Rise in AI
Chinese entrants swept all five categories, featuring technologies to improve civic life. But the advances could also be tools for surveillance.
From ACM News
Fallout From Hack of City Law Department Could Linger for Months
One department official was reassigned, and lawyers still lack remote access to case files, leading to delays with lawsuits.
From ACM News
Spy Agencies Turn to Scientists as They Wrestle With Mysteries
American intelligence agencies are tapping outside expertise as they wrestle with mysteries like the coronavirus and UFOs that are as much about science as they are about espionage.
From ACM News
Game Over: Chinese Company Deploys Facial Recognition to Limit Youths' Play
Tencent Games says it has been using facial recognition to enforce China's rules on how much time people under 18 can spend playing video games.
From ACM TechNews
Data Security Rules Instituted for U.S. Payment Processing System
New data security rules governing the payment system that facilitates direct deposits and direct payments for nearly all U.S. bank and credit union accounts are now in effect.
From ACM TechNews
China Beats Google to Claim the World's Most Powerful Quantum Computer
Chinese researchers have demonstrated the world's most powerful quantum computer, displacing Google's Sycamore processor as the holder of quantum supremacy.
From ACM TechNews
Technion Study Finds Warmth of AI Systems More Important Than Capability
Researchers found that potential users of artificial intelligence systems consider such systems’ “warmth” more important than capability and competence.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft's Emergency Patch Fails to Fix Critical 'PrintNightmare' Vulnerability
Researchers warn a Microsoft software patch did not fully correct a flaw in the Windows operating system that allows hackers to commandeer infected networks.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook, Twitter, Google Threaten to Quit Hong Kong Over Proposed Data Laws
Facebook, Twitter, and Google have threatened to halt service to Hong Kong if the city's government revises its data protection laws to make the companies liable for doxing.
From ACM News
We Tested AI Interview Tools. Here's What We Found.
One gave our candidate a high score for English proficiency when she spoke only in German.
From ACM News
Using AI to Drill Down in Physics
Artificial intelligence can give a boost to particle physics.
From ACM TechNews
Using AI to Predict 3D Printing Processes
Engineers have developed physics-informed neural networking artificial intelligence to predict the performance of three-dimensionally-printed objects.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Researchers Demonstrate the Advantage Quantum Computers Have Over Classical Computers
Scientists at IBM have proved quantum computing's superiority to classical computing in miniature, via a microscopic experiment with limited available memory.
From ACM TechNews
AI Learns to Predict Human Behavior From Videos
A computer vision algorithm developed by Columbia Engineering researchers can intuitively predict human interactions and body language in video.
From ACM TechNews
Japan's In-Home Robot Experiment Short Circuits
A lack of demand prompted Japan's SoftBank Robotics Group to cease manufacturing the Pepper humanoid robot in August 2020, the company said this week.
From ACM News
Quantum Computing Wars: IBM, Honeywell Make Major Moves as Competition Intensifies
The public sector is increasingly interested in quantum computing as both a source of high-paying jobs and a technology vital to corporate strategic interests.
From ACM News
Robots Can Make Music, but Can They Sing?
At an international competition called the A.I. Song Contest, tracks exploring the technology as a tool for music making revealed the potential — and the limitations.
From ACM News
Microsoft Issues Emergency Windows Patches for PrintNightmare Flaw
Bad actors can exploit the flaw to remotely run code on victims' computers.
From ACM TechNews
NASA's Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover 'Takes the Wheel'
A new auto-navigation system will allow the Perseverance rover on Mars to drive itself.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Mine the Rich Seam of Body Wearable Motion Sensors
Computer scientists at the University of Bath in the U.K. found that conductive seams in clothing, when accurately positioned, can be used to identify subtle movements by the wearer.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Spending Expected to Rise as Pandemic Restrictions Ease, Economy Improves
Market researcher Forrester Research has revised its 2021 forecast of U.S. enterprise information technology spending growth from 6% to 7.4% over 2020 levels.