Communications of the ACM
A Healthy Dose of AI
Building artificial intelligence into medical devices can speed diagnoses and potentially improve treatments and outcomes.
From ACM NewsAn edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Self-Driving Taxis Are Causing All Kinds of Trouble in San Francisco
They have blocked traffic, driven on the sidewalk, sped away from cops — and the city is powerless to stop them.
From ACM News
Best Jobs at the Olympics: Robot
Unlike other Olympic employees who clearly have been instructed to blend into the background of the events with which they're assisting, you command the spotlight...
From ACM TechNews
Body of Knowledge
Some medical schools are turning to virtual reality to enable students to learn from cadaver dissection.
From ACM News
The Lines of Code That Changed Everything
Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.
From ACM TechNews
Who's Behind That Beard?
Kurt Luther, working with a team at Virginia Polytechnic and State Institute, has launched Civil War Photo Sleuth, a Web platform that applies facial recognition...
From ACM TechNews
Meet Mappy, a Software System That Automatically Maps Old-School Nintendo Games
Mappy is a new software system that can autonomously generate maps of a video game's levels.
From ACM TechNews
Digital Genies
University of California, Berkeley professor Stuart Russell emphasizes the need to ensure artificial intelligence understands fundamental human values.
From ACM Opinion
We Don't Need Humans on Mars
The two mobile robots Spirit and Opportunity were launched from Earth in 2003 and arrived on opposite sides of Mars in 2004. A suite of cameras, instruments, and...
From ACM News
Should Cops Be Allowed to Take Control of Self-Driving Cars?
A few lines in a seemingly routine RAND Corp. report on the future of technology and law enforcement last week raised a provocative question: Should police have...
From ACM News
Human Weakness in Cybersecurity
The Joint Chiefs of Staff unclassified email system is now back online, after having been down for more than two weeks, following a breach that some officials have...
From ACM Opinion
The Social Security Number's Insecurities
In both the Anthem insurance hack and the two Office of Personnel Management hacks this year, attackers gained access to Social Security numbers, affecting 80 million...
From ACM Opinion
So Sayeth Google
Search for "vaccines." At least within our filter bubble, the top item in Google's "In the news" section earlier this week was an anti-vax column about the "feds'...
From ACM Opinion
Dumbing It Down in the Cockpit
Long gone are the leather jackets, goggles, and silk scarves flung over the shoulders of aviators who wrestled with flight controls, furiously scanned instruments...
From ACM News
Study: Swedish Boys Are Learning English From World of Warcraft
Swedish children, especially boys, may be learning more English during a late-night Minecraft session than from struggling through hours of homework.
From ACM News
The Quadriplegic Who Moved His Hand
Ian Burkhart was 19 and fearless and horsing around in the surf with friends on vacation in North Carolina’s Outer Banks when he mistimed a dive and a wave drove...
From ACM Careers
The First News Report on the L.a. Earthquake Was Written By a Robot
Ken Schwencke, a journalist and programmer for the Los Angeles Times, was jolted awake at 6:25 a.m. on Monday by an earthquake.
From ACM Opinion
What Do Data Brokers Know About Me?
I once ran into a friend and her husband at the playground in our neighborhood in Manhattan.
From ACM Opinion
The Weirdest Thing About the Apple Security Bug Is How Simple It Was
So for the past 18 months, there has been a horrific security hole in many of Apple's products that has allowed "man in the middle" attacks on supposedly secure...
From ACM News
Target's Heating and Refrigeration Company Gave Hackers the Key to Customer Data
The massive Target data breach is a symbol of the need for tighter data security in big retail chains, but it's also still an evolving story in its own right.
From ACM Opinion