Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
To Beat the Blues, Visits Must Be Real, Not Virtual
Imagine being stranded on a desert island with a roof over your head and sufficient provisions—but no human contact other than what you can get from your smartphone...
From ACM Opinion
Smart Tampon? The Internet of Every Single Thing Must Be Stopped
Let's play a game. Which of the following is a real smartphone-connected product?
From ACM Opinion
What If Facebook Gave S an Opposing-Viewpoints Button?
Imagine if you could flip a switch on Facebook, and turn all the conservative viewpoints that you see liberal, or vice versa. You'd realize your news might look...
From ACM Careers
Is the Tech Bubble Popping? Ping Pong Offers an Answer
Twitter's gloomy quarterly report last week unsettled investors. They might have anticipated trouble more than a year ago had they noticed one key indicator.
From ACM Opinion
Is Predictive Policing the Law-Enforcement Tactic of the Future?
As big data transforms industries ranging from retailing to health care, it’s also becoming a more important tool for police departments, which are turning to data...
From ACM Opinion
Telegraph to the Iphone: A Short History of Corporate Defiance
The high-stakes stalemate between Apple and the Justice Department isn’t the first time that Washington and Silicon Valley have come to a showdown over security...
From ACM Opinion
The Language Barrier Is About to Fall
It used to be the case when I traveled abroad that I would take a little pocket dictionary that provided translations for commonly used phrases and words.
From ACM Opinion
'crispr' Breaks Out Of the Lab
A new gene-editing technology has been relentlessly hyped over the past year, and it goes by a catchy if rather incongruous acronym: Crispr.
From ACM Opinion
Learning to Apply Data Science to Business Problems
One of the most exciting parts of data science is that it can be applied to many domains of knowledge, given our newfound ability to gather valuable data on almost...
From ACM Opinion
How the Science in 'star Wars’ Is Actually Real
For a story that takes place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" a great deal of the technology in the "Star Wars" series actually has parallels today on...
From ACM Opinion
Get Ready For Your Digital Model
Entrusting your money to a bank once seemed strange and risky.
From ACM Opinion
The Myth of Basic Science
Innovation is a mysteriously difficult thing to dictate. Technology seems to change by a sort of inexorable, evolutionary progress, which we probably cannot stop—or...
From ACM Opinion
What Celebrities Can Teach Companies About Social Media
Let's face it: Corporate America's social presence could use a celebrity makeover.
From ACM Opinion
Review: Littlebits Makes Robot Building Easier For Junior Engineers
In the recent surge of electronic building toys, my early favorite was LittleBits. The individual pieces each have a specific job, and they magnetically interlock...
From ACM Opinion
Pluto Is Just a Baby Step For Humankind
As it advances now beyond Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft is sending back data from its historic encounter with the dwarf planet like a long sigh of relief.
From ACM Opinion
Sean Parker: Philanthropy For Hackers
In the past several decades, there has been a monumental shift in the distribution of wealth on the planet.
From ACM Opinion
A Social Network For Talkers
No group needs social network software more than the elderly.
From ACM Opinion
What's It Like at a Top-Tier Conservatory? There's an App For That
The world of education has become a rapidly expanding universe.
From ACM Opinion
The Culture Wars Invade Science Fiction
Theodore Beale had a big day when the nominations for science fiction's annual Hugo Awards were announced last month: He received two nominations for his editing...
From ACM Opinion