Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2019
From ACM Opinion
Why Google's Quantum Supremacy Milestone Matters
Quantum computing is the first computing paradigm since Turing expected to change the fundamental scaling behavior of algorithms, making certain tasks feasible that had previously been exponentially hard.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Giants Have Hijacked the Web. It's Time for a Reboot
Technology giants like Facebook and Google have transformed the Internet into a corporate monopoly, experts warn, but a growing cottage industry aims to decentralize the Web to ensure free and open information.
From ACM Opinion
Should Computer Science Be Required?
At far too many institutions today, students who are not computer science majors encounter severe enrollment caps and watered-down or limited courses, writes Robert Sedgewick.
From ACM Opinion
Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Shut Up
Since 2017, nearly every time the Facebook CEO has tried to sound thoughtful, he's sounded unprepared, shallow, and full of hubris. Time to zip it.
From ACM Opinion
50 Years Ago, I Helped Invent the Internet. How Did It Go So Wrong?
We did not anticipate that the dark side of the Internet would emerge with such ferocity. Or that we would feel an urgent need to fix it.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Kill Innovation With Excessive Regulation
California's new law forcing ride-sharing companies to treat their drivers as employees could harm or kill an important new business model.
From ACM Opinion
This 11-Year-Old CEO Wants to Teach Kids Everywhere to Code
Samaira Mehta, co-founder of CodeBunnyz and founder of the Yes, 1 Billion Kids Can Code initiative, talks about why age is just a number, her dream of becoming president of the United States, and why she wishes she could clone…
From ACM Opinion
Why Matthew Miller Sees a Bright Future for Fedora
Fedora project leader Matthew Miller discusses popular adoption, competing standards, upcoming changes, and hot-button topics such as systemd.
From ACM Opinion
Are We Witnessing A New Sputnik Moment In IT?
Google's engineers have succeeded in designing a quantum computer which, for the first time ever, has solved a problem a conventional computer is not able to. Are we witnessing a new Sputnik moment in IT?
From ACM Opinion
Siri's #MeToo Responses Show Why Tech Needs Women
Once, when users called Siri a "slut," the service responded: "I'd blush if I could." Such programming missteps could have been avoided altogether if there were more women involved in Siri's design and programming.
From ACM Opinion
A Controversial Plan to Encrypt More of the Internet
The road to routing all Domain Name System lookups through HTTPS is pocked with disagreements over just how much it will help.
From ACM Opinion
How Artificial Intelligence Is Supercharging Materials Science
MIT Associate Professor Juejun Hu shines a light on the impact machine learning and AI are having on materials science and engineering.
From ACM Opinion
I Competed Against An AI
Marc Zao-Sanders, founder and CEO of Filtered, squared off against magpie, the set of algorithms that recommends learning content to people looking to pick up new skills.
From ACM Opinion
Asimov's Three Laws Have Failed the Robots
Almost no one thinks that Isaac Asimov's Three Laws could work for truly intelligent AI.
From Communications of the ACM
The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development
How cloud computing became a platform.
From Communications of the ACM
How Might We Increase System Trustworthiness?
Summarizing some of the changes that seem increasingly necessary to address known system and network deficiencies and anticipate currently unknown vulnerabilities.
From Communications of the ACM
What Is a Chief Security Officer Good For?
Security requires more than an off-the-shelf solution.
From Communications of the ACM
Multi-Device Digital Assistance
Increased availability of cloud services and ownership of multiple digital devices create unique opportunities for digital assistants to provide guidance across a range of tasks and scenarios.