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What's Next for Quantum Computing?
From ACM Opinion

What's Next for Quantum Computing?

Companies are moving away from setting qubit records in favor of practical hardware and long-term goals.

Quantum Computing Has a Hype Problem
From ACM Opinion

Quantum Computing Has a Hype Problem

Quantum computing startups are all the rage, but it is unclear if they will be able to produce anything of use in the near future.

How AI Is Reinventing What Computers Are
From ACM Opinion

How AI Is Reinventing What Computers Are

Three key ways artificial intelligence is changing what it means to compute

The Field of Natural Language Processing is Chasing the Wrong Goal
From ACM Opinion

The Field of Natural Language Processing is Chasing the Wrong Goal

Researchers are too focused on whether AI systems can ace tests of dubious value. They should be testing whether systems grasp how the world works.

Here’s One Way to Make Daily Covid-19 Testing Feasible on a Mass Scale
From ACM Opinion

Here’s One Way to Make Daily Covid-19 Testing Feasible on a Mass Scale

Pooling tests with the help of machine learning can allow us to safely reopen without a vaccine.

How to Know if Artificial Intelligence is About to Destroy Civilization
From ACM Opinion

How to Know if Artificial Intelligence is About to Destroy Civilization

These canaries in the coal mines of AI would be signs that superintelligent robot overlords are approaching.

A Second 737 Max Crash Raises Questions about Airplane Automation
From ACM Opinion

A Second 737 Max Crash Raises Questions about Airplane Automation

As you read this, over a million people are in flight. Close to a third of the commercial airplanes in the sky at any given moment are Boeing 737s: it is the best...

When Chinese Hackers Declared War on the Rest of ­s
From ACM Opinion

When Chinese Hackers Declared War on the Rest of ­s

Late one Wednesday in March 2015, an alarm sounded in the offices of GitHub, a San Francisco-based software firm. The company's offices exemplified the kind of...

Never Mind Killer Robots; Here Are Six Real AI Dangers to Watch Out for in 2019
From ACM Opinion

Never Mind Killer Robots; Here Are Six Real AI Dangers to Watch Out for in 2019

Once it was fashionable to fret about the prospect of super-intelligent machines taking over the world. The past year showed that AI may cause all sorts of hazards...

How China Got a Head Start in Fintech, and Why the West Won't Catch ­p
From ACM Opinion

How China Got a Head Start in Fintech, and Why the West Won't Catch ­p

In 2013 I moved from Paris to Beijing to study China's financial system. I stayed for two years and became fluent enough to translate economics books from Mandarin...

AI for Cybersecurity Is a Hot New Thing, and a Dangerous Gamble
From ACM Opinion

AI for Cybersecurity Is a Hot New Thing, and a Dangerous Gamble

When I walked around the exhibition floor at this week's massive Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, I was struck by the number of companies boasting...

The ­S May Have Just Pulled Even with China in the Race to Build Supercomputing's Next Big Thing
From ACM Opinion

The ­S May Have Just Pulled Even with China in the Race to Build Supercomputing's Next Big Thing

There was much celebrating in America last month when the US Department of Energy unveiled Summit, the world's fastest supercomputer. Now the race is on to achieve...

This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins
From ACM Opinion

This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins

The robot arm is performing a peculiar kind of Sisyphean task.

Here's How Hackers Could Cause Chaos in This Year's ­S Midterm Elections
From ACM Opinion

Here's How Hackers Could Cause Chaos in This Year's ­S Midterm Elections

On November 6, Americans will head to the polls to vote in the congressional midterm elections. In the months before the contest, hordes of foreign hackers will...

Is Technology About to Decimate White-Collar Work?
From ACM Careers

Is Technology About to Decimate White-Collar Work?

Kai-Fu Lee, one of China's best-known technologists and investors, thinks artificial intelligence is about to supplant many millions of the country's office workers...

The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions
From ACM Opinion

The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions

We are surrounded by hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence and robotics—hysteria about how powerful they will become, how quickly, and what they...

China's AI Awakening
From ACM Opinion

China's AI Awakening

On a tropical island that marks the southern tip of China, a computer program called Lengpudashi is playing one-on-one poker against a dozen people at once, and...

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...

A Reality Check For Ibm's AI Ambitions
From ACM Opinion

A Reality Check For Ibm's AI Ambitions

Paul Tang was with his wife in the hospital just after her knee replacement surgery, a procedure performed on about 700,000 people in the U.S. every year.

Finding Solace in Defeat By Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

Finding Solace in Defeat By Artificial Intelligence

Fan Hui, the European Go champion, needed some fresh air. "I don't understand myself anymore."
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