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There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy
From ACM Opinion

There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy

Years ago I spoke with a 16-year-old girl who was considering the idea of having a computer companion in the future, and she described the upside to me.

Why Apple Is the Future of Capitalism
From ACM Opinion

Why Apple Is the Future of Capitalism

With Apple Inc. now exceeding $1 trillion in market capitalization, it's tempting to understand this moment in terms of the dominance of all-too-large companies...

Mars Is Frigid, Rusty and Haunted. We Can’t Stop Looking at It.
From ACM Opinion

Mars Is Frigid, Rusty and Haunted. We Can’t Stop Looking at It.

There it was: Glowering red on the dashboard of the sky like an astrological warning light next to the full Blood Moon Friday. Mars.

How to Combat China's Rise in Tech: Federal Spending, Not Tariffs
From ACM Opinion

How to Combat China's Rise in Tech: Federal Spending, Not Tariffs

At the heart of the trade war between the United States and China lies a profound and unsettling question: Who should control the key technologies that will rule...

Looking Through the Eyes of China's Surveillance State
From ACM Opinion

Looking Through the Eyes of China's Surveillance State

They perch on poles and glare from streetlamps. Some hang barely visible in the ceiling of the subway, and others seem to stretch out on braced necks and peer into...

We Have Reached Peak Screen. Now Revolution Is in the Air.
From ACM Opinion

We Have Reached Peak Screen. Now Revolution Is in the Air.

Smartphones were once the best thing to happen to the tech industry—and for a while, it seemed, to all of us, too.

Why Made in China 2025 Will Succeed, Despite Trump
From ACM Opinion

Why Made in China 2025 Will Succeed, Despite Trump

China will succeed in building a powerful technology industry that will rival the United States, even if President Trump starts a trade war to stop it.

Why Hackers Aren't Afraid of ­s
From ACM Opinion

Why Hackers Aren't Afraid of ­s

Ask finance ministers and central bankers around the world about their worst nightmare and the answer is almost always the same: Sometime soon the North Koreans...

Pentagon Puts Cyberwarriors on the Offensive, Increasing the Risk of Conflict
From ACM Opinion

Pentagon Puts Cyberwarriors on the Offensive, Increasing the Risk of Conflict

The Pentagon has quietly empowered the United States Cyber Command to take a far more aggressive approach to defending the nation against cyberattacks, a shift...

Getting a Flood of G.D.P.R.-Related Privacy Policy ­pdates? Read Them.
From ACM Opinion

Getting a Flood of G.D.P.R.-Related Privacy Policy ­pdates? Read Them.

You have probably noticed a flood of emails and alerts from companies in the past few weeks informing you about changes to their privacy policies.

How Tech Can Turn Doctors Into Clerical Workers
From ACM Opinion

How Tech Can Turn Doctors Into Clerical Workers

There are times when the diagnosis announces itself as the patient walks in, because the body is, among other things, a text.

Europe's Data Protection Law Is a Big, Confusing Mess
From ACM Opinion

Europe's Data Protection Law Is a Big, Confusing Mess

There is a growing realization that our data is under attack.

'2001: A Space Odyssey' Is Still the '­ltimate Trip'
From ACM Opinion

'2001: A Space Odyssey' Is Still the '­ltimate Trip'

In the spring of 1964 the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was very worried. NASA was about to fly the Mariner 4 space probe past Mars.

Why Silicon Valley Must Go to War
From ACM Opinion

Why Silicon Valley Must Go to War

Should technologists prevent their tools from being used to wage war? This question was answered with a furious yes at Google recently, when more than 3,000 employees ...

A Brand-New Version of Our Origin Story
From ACM Opinion

A Brand-New Version of Our Origin Story

For over a decade, National Geographic's Genographic Project has been collecting saliva samples from willing participants, analyzing small pieces of their mother's...

Why Silicon Valley Shouldn't Work With the Pentagon
From ACM Opinion

Why Silicon Valley Shouldn't Work With the Pentagon

Is Silicon Valley going to war?

Can Europe Lead on Privacy?
From ACM Opinion

Can Europe Lead on Privacy?

"We have a responsibility to protect your information," Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, declared recently in a full-page newspaper advertisement...

What '2001' Got Right
From ACM Opinion

What '2001' Got Right

It's a testament to the lasting influence of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," which turns 50 this week, that the disc-shaped...

How Lies Spread Online
From ACM Opinion

How Lies Spread Online

The spread of misinformation on social media is an alarming phenomenon that scientists have yet to fully understand.

How to Make A.I. Human-Friendly
From ACM Opinion

How to Make A.I. Human-Friendly

For a field that was not well known outside of academia a decade ago, artificial intelligence has grown dizzyingly fast. Tech companies from Silicon Valley to Beijing...
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