Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2021
From ACM Opinion
Why OpenAI's Codex Won't Replace Coders
Human programmers can actually become more powerful and efficient with Codex
From ACM Opinion
Facebook Is What's Wrong with America, Says Tech Billionaire Benioff
Salesforce CEO warns that deception on social media is making it harder to solve societal challenges
From ACM Opinion
Why Facebook Should Release the Facebook Files
The company's least-bad option might also do a lot of good
From ACM Opinion
Timnit Gebru's Plan to Rethink Big Tech
Former Google AI ethics chief says whistleblowers working on AI need newer, better, tougher regulatory protections
From ACM Opinion
Protecting People from States
Cyber governance must have human rights, freedom at its core
From ACM Opinion
'Self-Driving' Cars Begin to Emerge from a Cloud of Hype
Developers try to overcome a multitude of technical challenges before vehicles drive on their own
From ACM Opinion
Leadership Lessons about Ethical AI and Algorithms
Wall Street Journal's Facebook series exposes flaws in leadership's handling of algorithms' unintended consequences
From ACM Opinion
Should Oversight of Biased AI Be Left Up to People?
Mounting research shows humans may not be up to the task of reigning in runaway algorithms
From ACM Opinion
America Is Being Held for Ransom, and It Needs to Fight Back
A comprehensive anti-ransomware strategy must make it tougher for criminal groups and their sponsors to carry out attacks
From ACM Opinion
A Developer's Guide to Machine-Learning Security
Countering adversarial attacks means understanding the different types as well as the ML weak spots
From ACM Opinion
What Social Media Needs to Learn from Traditional Media
The industry needs to develop professional norms—just as journalism once did
From ACM Opinion
Yann LeCun Talks Research Beginnings and Recent Developments
Deep-learning pioneer discusses early days in image-processing and developments in self-supervised learning for computer vision
From ACM Opinion
How GitHub COO Erica Brescia Runs the Coding Gold Mines
Tech leader discusses the state of GitHub's infrastructure, open source software philosophies, and more
From ACM Opinion
Who's Building the Foundation Models of the Future?
Curation, auditing, and evaluation of so-called 'foundation models' should not be left to the tech industry.
From ACM Opinion
The Imperative for Sustainable AI Systems
The impact of AI's massive carbon footprint is social, not just environmental
From ACM Opinion
Apple and Facebook Are Coming for Your Face Next
The face computer is coming—brace yourself
From ACM Opinion
Building Computer Models That See Everything
Advanced modeling and experimental techniques help computational neuroscientist understand how our minds try to perceive the world
From ACM Opinion
What Is Facebook?
It's a question that's bedeviled the company's own executives for years
From ACM Opinion
Politics Will Be Poorer Without Angela Merkel's Scientific Approach
The departing German chancellor's support for science and rigour in policymaking has proved transformative—except on climate change.
From ACM Opinion
Where Should Information Go to Be Safe?
Enterprise data is safest in the cloud and in the 'fog', according to one expert
From ACM Opinion
Donald Knuth: The Father of Algorithm Analysis
Turing Award winner talks programming, algorithms, the meaning of life, and more
From ACM Opinion
Machine Learning Won't Solve Natural Language Understanding
Data-driven approaches to NLU are psychologically, cognitively, and computationally implausible.
From ACM Opinion
The Third Revolution in Warfare
First there was gunpowder. Then nuclear weapons. Next: artificially intelligent weapons.
From ACM Opinion
Talking Secure Coding
Security expert discusses the importance of secure coding, how to improve adoption, best practices, and more
From ACM Opinion
The World Is Running Out of Microchips—Here's the Solution
Microchips are produced by a few large companies; an open-source design approach could end their dominance
From ACM Opinion
Battery Pioneer Akira Yoshino Talks Tesla, Apple, and the Electric Future
2019 Nobel Prize winner discusses the prospect of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and autonomous electric vehicles that charge themselves
From ACM Opinion
How Open Source Software Shapes AI Policy
And why it is largely absent from policy discussions on artificial intelligence
From ACM Opinion
Did DeepMind Just Take a Big Step Toward More Human-Like AI?
DeepMind researchers have created software agents that navigate a three-dimensional game world called XLand, where the agents learn from experience, by trial and error, how to play a vast number of simple games.
From ACM Opinion
The Global Research Community Must Not Abandon Afghanistan
Vulnerable Afghan researchers need the international research community’s support
From ACM Opinion
Here's Why Tech Companies Are Suddenly Focused on Child Safety
Tech colossi are responding to shifting political winds and trying to preempt new, impending regulations