Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Marissa Mayer Is in Over Her Head
One evening in the spring of 1999, Marissa Mayer got a recruiting email from a tiny search company. "I was in a long-distance relationship at the time, so I was...
From ACM Opinion
Are Guidelines Issued By Drone Industry an Attempt to Avoid Government Regulation?
The growing use of drones in the United States is facing firm opposition from civil liberties groups and some legislators, like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rep. ...
From ACM Opinion
gly Buttons
I can't figure out how to watch my brother's TV. He's explained it to me a hundred times, but that's the curse of the baby-sitting uncle: It's harder to work a...
From ACM Opinion
What Fearmongers Get Wrong About Cyberwarfare
Should we worry about cyberwarfare? Judging by excessively dramatic headlines in the media, very much so. Cyberwarfare, the argument goes, might make wars easier...
From ACM Opinion
I (robot) Thee Wed
It's hard to think of a more attention-grabbing title than "Robots, Men, and Sex Tourism"—especially in the academic world.
From ACM Opinion
Is It Time To Stop Trusting Google?
Was Google's snooping on home Wi-Fi users the work of a rogue software engineer? Was it a deliberate corporate strategy? Was it simply an honest-to-goodness mistake...
From ACM Opinion
Welcome to the Microsoft Store
Three years ago, shortly after Microsoft announced that it would launch its own retail stores, I offered the company some unsolicited advice: Copy Apple "relentlessly...
From ACM Opinion
The Troll Toll
When hospitals come upon a technology with a proven track record of saving lives, you'd expect a flood of investment to expand its use, and a race by manufacturers...
From ACM Opinion
Why Did Facebook Pay So Much For a Company with Zero Revenue?
When word came that Instagram had been acquired by Facebook for $1 billion, the tweets came fast, and they were furious.
From ACM Opinion
Darwin's Devices
When I tell people that I work on "evolving robots," their common response is to joke—semi-seriously—about Skynet or some other sci-fi nightmare in which machines...
From ACM Opinion
The 4g Fakeout
Not long ago, when desktops and laptops were the main computers we used every day, PC makers peddled what's known as the megahertz myth.
From ACM News
Your Kinect Is Watching You
There is a wave of concern—completely justified, to my mind—over the privacy implications of our increasing reliance on Facebook and Google. What most people don’t...
From ACM Opinion
I Love You, Killer Robots
It was way back in May 2010 that I first spotted the flying drones that will take over the world. They were in a video that Daniel Mellinger, one of the robots'...
From ACM Opinion
Windows Without Windows
Microsoft's new version of Windows is fantastic, jarring, and risky at the same time. Fantastic because it marks the clearest sign yet that Microsoft is embracing...
From ACM Opinion
You Need To Learn How To Program
If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, let me suggest an idea that you might not have considered: You should learn computer programming. Specifically,...
From ACM Opinion