Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Russia Is Risking the Creation of an Irreversible 'Splinternet'
If Russia disconnects—or is booted—from the Internet's governing bodies, the Internet may never be the same.
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
From ACM Opinion
Why the Most Controversial U.S. Internet Law Is Worth Saving
Donald Trump and Joe Biden both want to throw out Section 230. Here's why America should fix it instead. By Paul M. Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center...
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.
From ACM Opinion
The AI Community Needs fo Take Responsibility for Its Technology and Its Actions
Celeste Kidd, a cognitive psychologist, challenged the audience to think critically about the future they want to build.
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...
From ACM Opinion
This Is Why AI Has Yet to Reshape Most Businesses
The art of making perfumes and colognes hasn't changed much since the 1880s, when synthetic ingredients began to be used.
From ACM Opinion
Five Emerging Cyber-Threats to Worry About in 2019
Last year was full of cybersecurity disasters, from the revelation of security flaws in billions of microchips to massive data breaches and attacks using malicious...
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...
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...
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...
From ACM Opinion
Fake America Great Again
Guess what? I just got hold of some embarrassing video footage of Texas senator Ted Cruz singing and gyrating to Tina Turner. His political enemies will have great...
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.
From ACM Opinion
Future Elections May Be Swayed by Intelligent, Weaponized Chatbots
The battle against propaganda bots is an arm's race for our democracy. It's one we may be about to lose.
From ACM Opinion
Who Needs Democracy When You Have Data?
In 1955, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published a short story about an experiment in "electronic democracy," in which a single citizen, selected to represent...
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...
From ACM Opinion
How to Tell If You're Talking to a Bot
Twitter recently took drastic action as part of an effort to slow the spread of misinformation through its platform, shutting down more than two million automated...
From ACM Opinion
This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins
The robot arm is performing a peculiar kind of Sisyphean task.
From ACM Opinion