Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2017
From ACM Opinion
What If We Had Perfect Robot Referees
Last month, Mark Clattenburg, who is generally regarded as one of the finest referees in professional soccer, left England's Premier League for a better-paying position in Saudi Arabia.
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft: AI Isn't Yet Adaptable Enough to Help Businesses
The AI revolution may take longer than some expect to spread from Silicon Valley into other industries.
From ACM Opinion
What to Expect Now That Internet Providers Can Collect and Sell Your Web Browser History
After Congress handed President Trump legislation Tuesday that would wipe away landmark privacy protections for Internet users, we received a lot of reader questions about what happens next.
From ACM Opinion
Ghost in the Sell: Hollywood's Mischievous Vision of AI
Watch enough science fiction movies and you'll probably come to the conclusion that humans are living on borrowed time.
From ACM Opinion
How the Republicans Sold Your Privacy to Internet Providers
On Tuesday afternoon, while most people were focused on the latest news from the House Intelligence Committee, the House quietly voted to undo rules that keep internet service providers—the companies like Comcast, Verizon and…
From ACM Opinion
War By Any Means: The Story of DARPA
Shortly after arriving at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in April 1958, the new chief scientist presented a plan to the agency's director.
From ACM Opinion
The Trump Administration's War on Science
"Think of the marvels we can achieve if we simply set free the dreams of our people," President Trump said in his speech to Congress last month, after summoning a list of technological triumphs from America's past.
From ACM Opinion
Evolution Strategies as a Scalable Alternative to Reinforcement Learning
We've discovered that evolution strategies (ES), an optimization technique that's been known for decades, rivals the performance of standard reinforcement learning (RL) techniques on modern RL benchmarks (e.g. Atari/MuJoCo), …
From ACM Opinion
The Battle For Top AI Talent Only Gets Tougher From Here
Andrew Ng helped create two of Silicon Valley's leading artificial intelligence labs.
From ACM Opinion
Anti-Immigration Rhetoric Is a Threat to American Leadership
New immigration policies, coupled with xenophobic rhetoric and actions both before and after the election, are undoing the compact between the United States and those seeking opportunity from around the world.
From ACM Opinion
No, Microwave Ovens Cannot Spy on You, For Lots of Reasons
If you've been feeling a little paranoid lately—like even your standing mixer may be spying on you—rest assured that Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway shares your struggle.
From ACM Opinion
Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs With Smartphones?
Amid an opioid epidemic, the rise of deadly synthetic drugs and the widening legalization of marijuana, a curious bright spot has emerged in the youth drug culture: American teenagers are growing less likely to try or regularly…
From ACM Opinion
This Entrepreneur Dares You to Hack His Gadgets
Serial entrepreneur Andrew "Bunnie" Huang believes that consumer product companies should make their hardware designs publicly available so that anyone can study and modify them.
From ACM Opinion
Wikileaks' Attack on .s. Intelligence
Tuesday's WikiLeaks release exposing thousands of detailed documents on CIA hacking tools is an unbridled attack on U.S. intelligence operations with little or no public benefit.
From ACM Opinion
'this Is an All Hands on Deck Thing': A Former Obama Technology Adviser on Robots, Jobs and Cyberwarfare
During the Obama administration, R. David Edelman was one of the president's top advisers. As a part of Obama's National Security Council and his National Economic Council, Edelman was among those responsible for crafting U.S…
From ACM Opinion
Q&a with Ghanaian Science Luminary Promoting Math in the Developing World
Alumnus Professor Francis Allotey has worked tirelessly to promote math, physics, and computer science in Ghana and Africa more widely. Now he is working with Imperial College London to create a network of math researchers in…
From ACM Opinion
Why the Biggest Challenge Facing AI Is an Ethical One
Artificial intelligence is everywhere and it's here to stay.
From ACM Opinion
Africa Needs More Women Computer Scientists: How To Make It Happen
Computer science is an especially male-dominated university course all over the world. I have some ideas about how to throw open more doors for women computer scientists.
From ACM Opinion
Trump's Wiretap Rant Betrays Ignorance of the Law
President Donald Trump set the political and national security community on fire Saturday morning, starting the day with a four-part Twitter rant alleging that former President Barack Obama had "tapped" his phones during the …
From ACM Opinion
The Wisdom of Nokia's Dumbphone
They weighed heavy in pockets and jackets and bags, for they were thick and bulky, not lithe and narrow.
From ACM Opinion
I'm Marching to Fight the Alarming War on Science. Join Me
Two new public marches and demonstrations focused on science and climate change have been scheduled for April. I plan to be at both.
From ACM Opinion
Boston Dynamics' New Rolling, Leaping Robot Is an Evolutionary Marvel
If you're ever feeling down, do yourself a favor and watch some footage from the 2015 Darpa Robotics Challenge.
From Communications of the ACM
Where Review Goes Wrong
Examining professional misconduct among academic publication examiners.
From Communications of the ACM
Learning with Mobile Technologies
Considering the challenges, commitments, and quandaries.
From Communications of the ACM
Supreme Court on Design Patent Damages in Samsung v. Apple
Considering influences leading to the recent U.S Supreme Court decision in a years-long case that Apple filed against Samsung over iPhone design infringement.
From Communications of the ACM
Misconceptions About Computer Science
Common misconceptions about computer science hinder professional growth and harm the identity of computing.