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
AI In the ICU
Artificial intelligence can help doctors better understand what is happening to (and in) their patients when it matters most.
From ACM News
Creepy Robots of the Coronavirus Era
The robots policing people as they begin to emerge from coronavirus lockdowns are not being mistaken for anyone's friends.
From ACM News
Amazon’s Cloud Unit to Offer Quantum Computing From 3 Tech Companies
Fidelity Investments was among the companies involved in testing the new service, which will allow businesses to experiment with the super-fast computing.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Say 'Jackpotting' Flaws Tricked Popular ATMs Into Spitting Out Cash
Security researchers unveiled two new "jackpotting" flaws that force Nautilus ATMs to dispense cash on command.
From ACM TechNews
As E-Commerce Booms, Robots Pick Up Human Slack
Robots increasingly are filling some of the most common job roles in warehousing and logistics due to the explosion of e-commerce, Covid-19 stay-at-home orders, and the need for social distancing between workers.
From ACM TechNews
Yale Quantum Researchers Create Error-Correcting Cat
A new device integrates the “Schrodinger's cat” concept of superposition—a physical system in two states simultaneously—with the ability to correct some of the toughest errors in quantum computation.
From ACM TechNews
Federal Reserve Reveals Research Plans for Digital Dollar
U.S. Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard Thursday detailed her agency's research plans on the potential development of a U.S. central bank digital currency, or Digital Dollar.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Firms Broaden Group to Secure U.S. Election
Facebook, Google, and other major technology firms Wednesday announced an expansion of their coalition to secure the November U.S. presidential election, and met with government agencies.
From ACM News
U.S. Seizes Bitcoin Said to Be Used to Finance Terrorist Groups
ISIS and other groups openly solicited virtual currency donations because they mistakenly believed that the transactions would be anonymous, officials said.
From ACM News
A Memristor-based Hopfield Neural Architecture to Solve Combinatorial Optimization Problems
Researchers at Hewlett Packard Labs have developed a new memristor-based annealing system that can solve combinatorial optimization problems rapidly and efficiently.
From ACM News
Russell Kirsch, Inventor of the Pixel, Dies at Age 91
In 1957, Kirsch created a 2-by-2-inch black-and-white digital image of his son Walden as an infant, among the first images ever scanned into a computer, using a device created by his research team.
From ACM News
North Korean Hacking Group Attacks Israeli Defense Industry
Israel says the attack was thwarted, but a cybersecurity firm says it was successful. Some officials fear that classified data stolen by North Korea could be shared with Iran.
From ACM TechNews
Black Hat: How Hackers Gain Root Access to SAP Enterprise Servers Through SolMan
At the Black Hat USA 2020 conferences, cybersecurity researchers explained how attackers could exploit vulnerabilities in SAP Solution Manager (SolMan) to gain root access to enterprise servers.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Version of the Ancient Game of Go Could Be Ultimate AI Test
Researchers have created a more complex version of the ancient Chinese board game Go using quantum entanglement.
From ACM TechNews
NSA Warns Cellphone Location Data Could Pose National-Security Threat
The U.S. National Security Agency has released new guidance for military and intelligence community staff, warning of threats to national security from cellphone location tracking.
From ACM TechNews
Google's TF-Coder Tool Automates Machine Learning Model Design
Google Brain researchers have created an automated coding tool for machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow, that outperforms humans on challenging development tasks.
From ACM News
Android Phones to Track Quakes; California Gets Alert System
Google said Android phones will begin detecting earthquakes from around the world through their motion-sensing accelerometers.
From ACM News
Picking Locks with Audio Technology
How eavesdropping smartphones could give thieves a copy of your front door key.
From ACM News
Finding Common Ground
Self-driving vehicles start to understand pedestrians, cyclists.
From ACM TechNews
Back to School? Look Out for Covid-Tracking Surveillance Tech
Surveillance technology deployed in schools to prevent or contain coronavirus infection raises issues about its effectiveness, as well as its post-pandemic applications.
From ACM TechNews
U.K. Court Says Face Recognition Violates Human Rights
The U.K. Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday that British police's use of facial recognition technology violates human rights and data protection laws.
From ACM TechNews
3D Images From Ultrasounds Allow Blind Parents to Feel Their Infant's Face
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore can provide blind parents with three-dimensional models of their baby's face so they can "see" them before they are born,
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Computing Breakthrough as Scientists Find Possible Solution to Technology's Biggest Hurdle
Research by scientists in Australia and Canada has led to a possible solution to controlling "noise" in quantum computers, errors introduced by manipulation of quantum bits (qubits).
From ACM TechNews
Army Advances Learning Capabilities of Drone Swarms
Researchers have developed a reinforcement learning technique to enable swarms of unmanned drones to carry out missions while minimizing performance uncertainty.
From ACM TechNews
Cisco Challenge Winners Use AI, IoT to Tackle Global Problems
Cisco awarded the top prize in its Global Problem Solver Challenge to an Internet of Things-enabled system for transporting dairy products.
From ACM News
Russia to Apple: You're Guilty of Antitrust Abuse over iOS App Monopoly
After Kaspersky complains, Russia's competition authority finds Apple abused its total control over the App Store.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithm Finds Hidden Connections Between Paintings at the Met
A new algorithm finds hidden links between paintings at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Netherlands' Rijksmuseum.
From ACM TechNews
Privacy Problems Are Widespread for Alexa, Google Assistant Voice Apps
Researchers have found that privacy policies for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa often violate baseline requirements.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Machines Learn 'Quantum Data'
Scientists at Russia's Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology have demonstrated that quantum-enhanced machine learning can be applied to quantum data, surmounting a critical bottleneck.
From ACM News
Apparently, Size Does Matter
Consumers make better Internet buying decisions when using full-sized PCs.