Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2020
From ACM News
The Conscience of Silicon Valley
Tech oracle Jaron Lanier warned us all about the evils of social media. Too few of us listened. Now, in the most chaotic of moments, his fears—and his bighearted solutions—are more urgent than ever.
From ACM News
Direct Communication
Brain-to-Brain interfaces give a new meaning to putting our heads together.
From ACM TechNews
AI Researchers Devise Cheap Data Collection Method to Scale Training Robots
Researchers have created a low-cost method of training robots, in an effort to scale the collection of training data and enable widespread adoption.
From ACM TechNews
White House Plans to Boost AI, Quantum Funding by 30%
The Trump administration has proposed a 30% increase in spending in the 2021 U.S. nondefense budget for artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science.
From ACM TechNews
U.S. Agency Takes Part in Simulated Cyberattack on Critical Systems
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency successfully completed a biannual simulated cyberattack on critical systems.
From ACM TechNews
MIT, Boston Dynamics Team Up on Robot for Remote Covid-19 Vital Sign Measurement
A diverse group of researchers developed a robot to remotely measure vital signs in patients for Covid-19 with contactless equipment.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Create 3D-Printed Buildings From Soil
Texas A&M University researchers have come up with a technique for using a three-dimensional printer to build greener buildings from soil.
From ACM TechNews
Army Researchers Develop Sensors for Small Drones
Researchers have developed a novel sensor and software application to help unmanned aerial systems avoid active power lines.
From ACM TechNews
AI-Based Traffic Management Gets Green Light
The NoTraffic autonomous traffic management company has deployed an artificial intelligence-driven traffic management system in Phoenix, AZ.
From ACM News
With Virtual Reality, Caregivers Can Become Patients
Carrie Shaw's struggle with her mother's dementia led her to create a company that allows users to experience the struggles of growing older.
From ACM News
For Quick Coronavirus Testing, Israel Turns to a Clever Algorithm
Inspired by a mother's question, the new method will be introduced across Israel this fall, just in time for flu season, and could be coming soon to the U.S.
From ACM News
Facebook AI, NYU Langone Create Accurate MRIs with Less Time and Data
Researchers at Facebook Inc. and NYU Langone Health say that a two-year experiment demonstrates how artificial intelligence can produce a fourfold increase in the speed of magnetic resonance imaging.
From ACM TechNews
Covid-19 Crisis Accelerates U.K. Military's Push Into Virtual War Gaming
The U.K. Ministry of Defence is looking to fast-track new virtual reality technology from software developer Improbable that would create a digital "twin" of the country.
From ACM TechNews
New Approach Takes Quantum Key Distribution Further
Researchers from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications have demonstrated secure measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) transmission across 170 kilometers (106 miles).
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Assistant Will Screen Your Phone Calls to Block Spammers
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a virtual assistant that screens phone calls to block robocallers.
From ACM TechNews
Hotel Robots Get Second Life as Industry Adapts to Covid-19
Robots could limit how much extra labor U.S. hotels must hire to meet sanitation demands during the global pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
Deep Learning on Cell Signaling Networks Establishes Interpretable AI for Single-Cell Biology
Researchers at the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have created knowledge-primed neural networks which utilize signaling pathways and gene-regulatory networks.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Pays $13.7 Million in Security Bug Bounties
Microsoft has awarded $13.7 million to security researchers since July 2019 for reporting bugs in its software, which is triple the $4.4 million from the same period the previous year and double Google's 2019 payouts.
From ACM TechNews
Talking Machines: Who Won This Year's Alexa Prize?
A team of students from Emory University has won this year's $500,000 Alexa Prize from Amazon for advancing conversational artificial intelligence by designing innovative chatbots that Alexa customers can interact with through…
From ACM TechNews
Using Ears, Not Just Eyes, Improves Robot Perception
Carnegie Mellon University researchers conducted a large-scale study and determined that sound can help robots differentiate between objects and identify what action was causing specific sounds.
From ACM TechNews
Security Gap Allows Eavesdropping on Mobile Phone Calls
Researchers from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum and New York University Abu Dhabi eavesdropped on cellphone calls by exploiting a security flaw in basestation implementations.
From ACM TechNews
U.K. Used an Algorithm to Estimate Exam Results; The Calculations Favored Elites
The British government has changed its strategy of using an algorithm to estimate how students would have performed on A-level college admissions exams after results appeared to benefit students at exclusive private schools.
…From ACM TechNews
Algorithm Improves Fairness of Search Results
Cornell University researchers have developed an algorithm to improve the fairness of online search rankings while retaining their utility and relevance.
From ACM TechNews
Millions Have Lost Jobs in the Pandemic – Robots and AI Are Replacing Them
The pandemic has prompted more companies to replace workers with robots and artificial intelligence to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace and lower operating costs.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Are Building an Army of Cheap Satellite Trackers
The U.S. Air Force, Red Balloon Security, and the Defense Digital Service teamed up on the NyanSat project to build an open source satellite communication tool from inexpensive hardware.
From ACM TechNews
Automated Coding Could Mean Big Changes for Software Developers
Researchers from Intel and MIT have unveiled a machine learning tool that brings developers one step closer to automated coding.
From ACM TechNews
Tool Created for Discerning Fake News
A study from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Indiana University demonstrated novel tools for flagging fake news on social media platforms.
From ACM TechNews
Developer Jobs: Demand for Programming Language Python Falls Amid Pandemic
Demand has slackened for Python coding language skills since March amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to HackerRank, the developer hiring platform.
From ACM TechNews
NSA, FBI Expose Russian Intelligence Hacking Tool
The U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation have publicly exposed a sophisicated hacking tool that Russian intelligence used to penetrate Linux-based computers.
From ACM TechNews
Android Is Now World's Largest Earthquake Detection Network
Google says it has created "the world's largest earthquake detection network" by adding quake detection features to almost all Google Play Android phones.