Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Fake News: Can Teenagers Spot It?
If we are to make it less of a threat to democracy, that effort is going to need to start in schools.
From ACM Opinion
Why Video Games Are Obsessed With the Apocalypse
Video games are, in a way, the perfect medium through which to depict the post-apocalypse. If we assume that after the collapse of civilisation everyone will revert...
From ACM Opinion
Tracking Terrorists Online Might Invade Your Privacy
Remember that picture you sent to your family of your children playing in the paddling pool? Or that private text you sent to someone trusted? Or when you searched...
From ACM Opinion
What If the Internet Stopped Working For a Day?
Jeff Hancock likes to give his Stanford University students weekend assignments that let them experience concepts discussed in class for themselves.
From ACM Opinion
The New Words That Expose Our Smartphone Obsessions
New words sometimes skewer a trend so perfectly you wonder how you survived without them. One of the most delightfully apt new phrases I've found in the last few...
From ACM Opinion
Facebook Fake News Row: Mark Zuckerberg Is a Politician Now
I've long suspected that Mark Zuckerberg, who often refers to himself as the "leader" of Facebook, has dreams of high office.
From ACM Opinion
How to Conquer the Galaxy on a Computer
Space is big. Really big. And not just in terms of the mind-boggingly vast distances between the stars and planets out there in the Universe at large.
From ACM Opinion
North Korea: Surfing the Net in the World's Most Isolated Nation
What's the point of a computer in a hermit country sealed off from the internet?
From ACM Opinion
Could Robots Become Too Cute For Comfort?
Would you share your innermost secret with a robot?
From ACM Opinion
Cyborgs: The Truth About Human Augmentation
At the height of summer, when London was baking in unseasonable heat, I made an ill-fated trip to the Serpentine lido in central London.
From ACM Opinion
James Foley: Extremists Battle with Social Media
Just as Islamic State (IS) has swept across Iraq, so too has it swarmed over social media—using the platform with a sophistication never before witnessed in this...
From ACM Opinion
Is Google Autocomplete Evil?
"Women shouldn't have rights." "Women shouldn't vote." "Women shouldn't work."
From ACM Opinion
Twitter: Tweets and Hashtags Will Shape How We Think
One day, a user of Twitter decided to do something no else had tried before.
From ACM Opinion
Picture This: Is There Life After Photoshop?
For almost all its 23-year existence, Photoshop has dominated the digital retouching and design world.
From ACM Opinion
How Wearable Technology Could Transform Business
Once upon a time seeing your life flash before your eyes was something people did their best to avoid. The arrival of Google Glass seems to have changed that.
From ACM Opinion
What Would Happen If All Satellites Stopped Working?
We may not always realise it, but we depend on space technology orbiting the Earth.
From ACM Opinion
Apple: An End to Skeuomorphic Design?
Why do most smartphones make a clicking noise, like a camera shutter closing, when you take a picture with them? Why do the virtual pages of a book on a tablet...
From ACM Opinion
Qwerty Keyboards: Time For a Rethink?
Q-W-E-R-T-Y. Six letters that define so much of our waking lives.
From ACM Careers
Becoming Biohackers: Learning the Game
When you have lunch courtesy of the FBI, you are offered chicken Caesar salad, hamburger, or fish.12