Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2016
From ACM Opinion
Today's Artificial Intelligence Does Not Justify Basic Income
Not a day goes by when we do not hear about the threat of AI taking over the jobs of everyone from truck drivers to accountants to radiologists.
From ACM Opinion
Nate Silver Blew It When He Missed Trump. Now He Really Needs to Get It Right.
Nate Silver is on the downtown 1 train. Possibly because he looks like a (modestly) hip math teacher, and hardly looks up from his phone, he goes unrecognized until he reaches the PlayStation Theater in Times Square.
From ACM Opinion
America Isn't Ready For a Cyberattack
The recent cyberattack that rendered more than 1,200 websites unreachable was a warning. Experts say a similar, or larger, attack could be launched tomorrow, and we’d be powerless to prevent it.
From ACM Opinion
E-Voting Refuses to Die Even Though It's Neither Secure Nor Secret
In theory, using the internet or e-mail to vote for the U.S. president sounds like a good idea.
From ACM Opinion
Who Oversees Data Brokers Selling Your Personal Info? No One
You probably already know that you have precious little privacy, and that shadowy data brokers have built the buying and selling of people’s personal information into a multibillion-dollar industry.
From ACM Opinion
Vulnerability Is the Internet's Original Sin
On the day (perhaps not long from now) when the entire internet crashes, no one will be able to say that we didn’t see it coming.
From ACM Opinion
The Decline in Chinese Cyberattacks: The Story Behind the Numbers
Last summer, an audience of government officials, military personnel, and foreign ambassadors gathered in Aspen, Colorado, to hear John Carlin, then an assistant attorney general, speak about cyberattacks.
From ACM Opinion
A.i. Inspiration: The Science Fiction That Frames Discussion
Science fiction comes up often in serious discussions about artificial intelligence and weapons.
From ACM Opinion
Mark Zuckerberg's Long March to China
For U.S. Internet businesses, China is the land of moral defeat.
From ACM Opinion
AI Is Not Out to Get S
Elon Musk's new plan to go all-in on self-driving vehicles puts a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence needed to ensure his Teslas can read and react to different driving situations in real time.
From ACM Opinion
If They Google You, Do You Win?
Are voters misleading pollsters? Are there hidden Donald Trump supporters who could throw the election his way?
From ACM Opinion
Inside Microsoft's Quest For a Topological Quantum Computer
The race is on build a "universal" quantum computer. Such a device could be programmed to speedily solve problems that classical computers cannot crack, potentially revolutionizing fields from pharmaceuticals to cryptography.
From ACM Opinion
Incessant Consumer Surveillance Is Leaking Into Physical Stores
You just wanted to shop for a birthday gift in peace—instead, you got ads that follow you around the internet, and coupons in your email that remember exactly which products you clicked on.
From ACM Opinion
Where Do All the Old Programmers Go?
In a recent editorial, Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, describes software engineering as a career dead end. Somehow I doubt it.
From ACM Opinion
Hey Silicon Valley: President Obama Has a To-Do List For You
Ask not what the government can do for Silicon Valley; ask what Silicon Valley can do for the government.
From ACM Opinion
Whoever Wins the White House, This Year's Big Loser Is Email
Every four years, pundits race to anoint this or that newfangled tech trend as the next disruptive force to forever alter the mechanics of American democracy.
From ACM Opinion
Could Obama's Threat of Retaliation Against Russia Lead to Cyberwar?
Late last week Obama administration officials used NBC News to send Moscow a cryptic threat: The U.S. government is "contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action" against Russia for allegedly interfering in the upcoming…
From ACM Opinion
Dwarf Planets Aren't Big News, Because Astronomy Is Doing a Great Job
Last week, astronomers announced the discovery of DeeDee, a possible dwarf planet. That name—dwarf planet—means it is like Pluto: Massive enough to assume a spherical shape due to its own gravitational force, but not quite big…
From ACM Opinion
I Just Want Nate Silver to Tell Me It's All Going to Be Fine
Evan has a habit. He's not ashamed of it, but he doesn't want to reveal too much about himself, lest his colleagues learn how he’s spending so much of his time.
From ACM Opinion
Maths Becomes Biology's Magic Number
"If you want a career in medicine these days you're better off studying mathematics or computing than biology."
From ACM Opinion
Inside Nat Geo's Incredible Documentary Mission to Mars
A spaceship is preparing to land on Mars when the crew notices that one of the thrusters isn’t firing.
From ACM Opinion
Algorithms Aren't Biased, But the People Who Write Them May Be
A provocative new book called "Weapons of Math Destruction" has inspired some charged headlines. But author Cathy O'Neil's message is subtle: Math isn't biased. People are biased.
From ACM Opinion
George Orwell Never Dreamed of Advertising as Invasive as Yahoo's Proposal
Yahoo wants to take advertising to the next level—that is, the Orwellian level—bombarding people in public places with targeted advertising served up by the surveillance society.
From ACM Opinion
Obama's Concerned an AI Could Hack America's Nukes
During his eight years in office, President Barack Obama has seen hackers grow into a threat no president has faced before.
From ACM Opinion
There Is a Blind Spot in AI Research
This week, the White House published its report on the future of artificial intelligence (AI)—a product of four workshops held between May and July 2016 in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Washington DC and New York City (see go.nature.com…
From ACM Opinion
How to Turn Your Self-Driving Car Into a Time Machine
The self-driving car's greatest promise is that it will buy its passengers that most precious and finite of resources: time.
From ACM Opinion
Surveillance in the Post-Obama Era
During his 2008 campaign, President Obama vowed to assert greater oversight of the massive surveillance apparatus built in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, arguing that the United States needed to strike a better balance between…
From ACM Opinion
Russian Hacking Crisis Tests Obama's Nerve
President Barack Obama came under immediate pressure Friday night to punish Russia for hacking into US political institutions—with calls to rally European allies behind sweeping new sanctions against Moscow.
From ACM Opinion
Ron Wyden Discusses Encryption, Data Privacy and Security
Ron Wyden, U.S. senator from Oregon and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, recently talked about the privacy-versus-security debate.
From ACM Opinion
Welcome Your New Robot Overlords: Humans
I became a robot.