Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2021
From ACM Opinion
Why It's So Hard to Make Tech More Diverse
Block Party founder Tracy Chou reflects on the obstacles she's encountered as a tech entrepreneur.
From ACM Opinion
The Trumpian Roots of the Chip Crisis
Blame the pandemic for the chip shortage, but the Trump administration's trade policy made the situation much worse.
From ACM Opinion
If You Say 'Science Is Right,' You're Wrong
It can't supply absolute truths about the world, but it brings us steadily closer.
From ACM Opinion
What OpenAI and GitHub's AI Pair Programmer Means for the Software Industry
AI-powered code generator provides some interesting hints about the business of large language models and the future of the software industry.
From ACM Opinion
Building Artificial Intelligence: Reward Is Not Enough
Rewards are not enough to build artificial intelligence, says data scientist Herbert Roitblat, countering claims from a recent paper by DeepMind scientists.
From ACM Opinion
Non-Relational's Quiet Revolution in Databases
It's no longer exciting to talk about the rise of non-relational databases, but it's happening all the same.
From ACM Opinion
Robots Were Supposed to Take Our Jobs. Instead, They're Making Them Worse.
The robot apocalypse is already here, it just looks different than you thought.
From ACM Opinion
Algorithmic Impact Assessments Should Leverage Diverse Expertise and Complex Histories
There is a pressing need to establish algorithmic impact assessment practices from the ground up.
From ACM Opinion
TinyML: What Is It and How Will It Change Machine Learning Best Practices?
TinyML will change machine-learning best practices by encouraging more developers to view it as a viable option.
From ACM Opinion
Faster Python Programming: How Developers Built Pyston and Where It Goes Next
Now in version 2.2, Pyston stakes its claim on the speed and performance of web applications.
From ACM Opinion
Alondra Nelson Wants to Make Science and Tech More Just
The deputy director of the White House science office plans to tackle algorithmic bias and start candid conversations about the past.
From ACM Opinion
Tesla AI Chief Says Self-Driving Cars Don't Need Lidar
Andrej Karpathy shares why the company still believes in a purely vision-based autonomous driving solution.
From Communications of the ACM
Reimplementing Software Interfaces Is Fair Use
A multifactored rationale for denying Oracle's claim against Google.
From Communications of the ACM
Lessons From the Loo
Illustrating privacy concepts with potty talk.
From Communications of the ACM
Responsible Computing During COVID-19 and Beyond
Navigating the ethical and societal impacts of technologies.
From Communications of the ACM
Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
Acquiring developer-prized practical skills, knowledge, and experiences.
From Communications of the ACM
The Limits of Differential Privacy (and Its Misuse in Data Release and Machine Learning)
Differential privacy is not a silver bullet for all privacy problems.
From Communications of the ACM
The 2021 Software Developer Shortage Is Coming
Companies must address the difficulty of hiring and retaining high-skilled employees from an increasingly smaller labor supply.