acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Articles


bg-corner

Social Media Is Polluting Society
From ACM Opinion

Social Media Is Polluting Society

Moderation alone will not fix the problem.

It Is Okay to Opt out of the Crypto Revolution
From ACM Opinion

It Is Okay to Opt out of the Crypto Revolution

The crypto industry is investing heavily in getting more people to buy in, but that does not mean you have to.

Save Social Media by Treating It like a City
From ACM Opinion

Save Social Media by Treating It like a City

Make online spaces more similar to offline ones to limit the reach of bad actors and keep people safe

Taxing Digital Advertising Could Help Break Up Big Tech
From ACM Opinion

Taxing Digital Advertising Could Help Break Up Big Tech

A novel approach to rein in the largest technology companies, encourage competition and innovation, and help democracy

The Four Ways that Ex-Internet Idealists Explain Where It All Went Wrong
From ACM Opinion

The Four Ways that Ex-Internet Idealists Explain Where It All Went Wrong

A long time ago, in the bad old days of the 2000s, debates about the Internet were dominated by two great tribes: the Optimists and the Pessimists.

Fiction That Gets AI Right
From ACM Opinion

Fiction That Gets AI Right

Even the most futuristic applications of AI, from robotic servants to instant health scans, somehow already seem familiar because they have been endless fodder...

The Enduring Legacy of Zork
From ACM Opinion

The Enduring Legacy of Zork

In 1977, four recent MIT graduates who'd met at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science used the lab's PDP-10 mainframe to develop a computer game that captivated...

Hollywood Has No Idea What to Do with Vr
From ACM Opinion

Hollywood Has No Idea What to Do with Vr

Would you watch a virtual-reality Casablanca?

Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker
From ACM Opinion

Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker

For decades Hollywood has treated computers as magic boxes from which endless plot points could be conjured, in denial of all common sense.

The Step Needed to Make Virtual Reality More Real
From ACM Opinion

The Step Needed to Make Virtual Reality More Real

It's one thing to play the arcade game Whac-A-Mole by swinging around an oversized mallet; it's far easier to whack those moles virtually, controlling the mallet...

Fighting Isis Online
From ACM Opinion

Fighting Isis Online

The two men pecked out messages on opposite sides of the country.

Reality Check: Comparing Hololens and Magic Leap
From ACM Opinion

Reality Check: Comparing Hololens and Magic Leap

I've seen two competing visions for a future in which virtual objects are merged seamlessly with the real world.

What Are Moocs Good For?
From ACM Opinion

What Are Moocs Good For?

A few years ago, the most enthusiastic advocates of MOOCs believed that these "massive open online courses" stood poised to overturn the century-old model of higher...

From ACM Opinion

Why Google Doesn't Have a Research Lab

Research vice presidents at some computing giants, such as Microsoft and IBM, rule over divisions housed in dedicated facilities carefully insulated from the rat...

Glass, Darkly
From ACM Opinion

Glass, Darkly

Google Glass shares much of its electronics and software with the smartphone, but it's a very different machine.

Why Google Kept Motorola's Research Lab
From ACM Opinion

Why Google Kept Motorola's Research Lab

Google's $2.9 billion sale of Motorola Mobility to Chinese PC maker Lenovo might seem like lousy business, given Google's $12.5 billion purchase in 2012 and losses...

An AI Pal That Is Better Than 'her'
From ACM Opinion

An AI Pal That Is Better Than 'her'

In the movie Her, which was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture this year, a middle-aged writer named Theodore Twombly installs and rapidly falls in love with...

The Paradox of Wearable Technologies
From ACM Opinion

The Paradox of Wearable Technologies

Ever talk to someone at a party or conference reception only to discover that the person you are talking to is constantly scanning the room, looking this way and...

The Secret to a Video-Game Phenomenon
From ACM Careers

The Secret to a Video-Game Phenomenon

All video-game makers are minor gods.

Apple's New Mobile Os Is All About Ive
From ACM Opinion

Apple's New Mobile Os Is All About Ive

For Apple, there's a lot riding on iOS 7, the newest version of its mobile software and the first refresh overseen by veteran industrial design head Jonathan Ive...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account