Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2018
From ACM News
How the Artificial-Intelligence Program AlphaZero Mastered Its Games
A few weeks ago, a group of researchers from Google's artificial-intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind, published a paper in the journal Science that described an A.I. for playing games.
From ACM TechNews
AI Can Easily Break Text CAPTCHA
A new machine learning algorithm can crack most text-based CAPTCHAs within 0.05 seconds.
From ACM TechNews
Rail Passengers to Benefit From New GPS Technology as Early as Next Month
New global positioning system technology will be deployed on rail systems in the U.K. starting in January.
From ACM TechNews
Wake-p Timer Saves Power for IoT Sensors
A new "battery-less" wake-up timer substantially lowers the power consumption of silicon chips for Internet of Things sensor nodes.
From ACM TechNews
Toyota Wants to Put a Robot Friend in Every Home
Toyota envisions robots becoming commonplace in homes as companions to senior citizens.
From ACM TechNews
Julia Language Co-Creators Win James H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software
The three scientists who co-created the Julia programming language will be awarded the 2019 James H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software.
From ACM News
Pluto Explorer shering in New Year at More Distant World
The spacecraft team that brought us close-ups of Pluto will ring in the new year by exploring an even more distant and mysterious world.
From ACM News
The German Sub Sank 76 Years Ago. Now Its Story Is Being Revealed in Eerie Fluorescent Detail.
The U-boat seems to loom out of the blackness, careening to starboard, as if to avoid a collision.
From ACM News
As Air Taxis Arrive, Software Issues Arise
Urban 'flying car' technology is almost here, but with proponents haunted by a 1977 helicopter crash, getting safety right is the top priority.
From ACM TechNews
RFID Tag Arrays Can Be sed to Track a Person's Movement
Radio-frequency identification tags may be used to track movement.
From ACM TechNews
Advancement of AI Opens Health Data Privacy to Attack
Artificial intelligence innovations have created new threats to health data privacy against which current laws and regulations cannot adequately safeguard.
From ACM TechNews
Growing Bio-Inspired Shapes With Hundreds of Tiny Robots
Researchers have found that hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes without an underlying master plan.
From ACM TechNews
Hardware-Software Co-Design Approach Could Make Neural Networks Less Power Hungry
A neuro-inspired hardware-software co-design approach could make neural network training more energy-efficient and faster.
From ACM News
One Giant Step for a Chess-Playing Machine
In early December, researchers at DeepMind, the artificial-intelligence company owned by Google's parent corporation, Alphabet Inc., filed a dispatch from the frontiers of chess.
From ACM News
.S. Passes Bill to Inject $1.2 Billion Into the Quantum Tech Race
The new law, called the National Quantum Initiative Act, allocates up to $1.2 billion in funding to keep American quantum information science competitive on the global scale.
From ACM TechNews
How AI Spotted Every Solar Panel in the .S.
Stanford University engineers have developed a method for locating every solar panel in the contiguous U.S.
From ACM TechNews
An Amoeba Just Found an Entirely New Way to Solve a Classic Computing Problem
Researchers gave the Traveling Salesman Problem to a "true slime mold" amoeba.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Vision Can Create Harry Potter-Style Photos for Muggles
New software can animate the central character in a photograph while leaving the rest of the image untouched.
From ACM TechNews
Brazilian Museum Destroyed by Fire Lives on Through Google
Google is helping preserve Brazil's National Museum via a virtual exhibition, three months after the institution's destruction by fire.
From ACM TechNews
A Robotic Hand Plays the Piano With a More Human Touch
Researchers have developed a robotic hand that can play the piano.
From ACM News
These Incredibly Realistic Fake Faces Show How Algorithms Can Now Mess with s
These faces don't seem particularly remarkable. They could easily be taken from, say, Facebook or LinkedIn. In reality, they were dreamed up by a new kind of AI algorithm.
From ACM News
NASA's InSight Places First Instrument on Mars
NASA's InSight lander has deployed its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone. New images from the lander show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-colored covering faintly illuminated…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Hardware for 3D Games Could Hold the Key to Replicating the Brain
Researchers have developed what they describe as the fastest, most energy-efficient simulation of part of a rat brain, using off-the-shelf computer hardware.
From ACM TechNews
A Toaster on Wheels to Deliver Groceries? Self-Driving Tech Tests Practical ses
Slow uptake of driverless passenger services is spurring the autonomous industry to experiment with offerings like food deliveries from small, self-driving vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Meet 'Millie' the Avatar. She'd Like to Sell You a Pair of Sunglasses
A Canadian startup has created a life-size digital avatar to help retail brands looking for ways to boost falling in-store sales in the face of growing competition from e-commerce.
From ACM TechNews
Then One Foggy Christmas Eve, Reindeers Got Connected
Reindeer herders in Finland are fitting their animals with Internet-connected collars to keep track of their whereabouts in the wilderness, using a mobile app.
From ACM TechNews
Network Orchestration: SL Researcher ses Music to Manage Networks
Saint Louis University researchers have proposed a sound-based traffic-management solution for network orchestration.
From ACM News
How Computers Got Shockingly Good at Recognizing Images
Right now, I can open up Google Photos, type "beach," and see my photos from various beaches I've visited over the last decade.
From ACM News
Robot Hand That Plays Jingle Bells Could Help Make Better Limbs
It's not the best version of Jingle Bells you'll ever hear—it's being played by a rubber robot hand. But the hand could point the way to better designs for robot limbs.
From ACM News
China's Tech Giants Want to Go Global. Just One Thing Might Stand in Their Way.
In the early 1980s, a cluster of fledging computer companies opened up shop in a chaotic corner of northwest Beijing, near the campuses of Peking and Tsinghua Universities.