Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
The Metaverse Is Simply Big Tech, but Bigger
It's a rebrand of Silicon Valley's increasing power and reach, and it's made for companies, not people
From ACM Opinion
Section 230 Is a Government License to Build Rage Machines
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act serves as Facebook and Google's get-out-of-jail-free card for conspiracies and disinformation.
From ACM Opinion
When School Is Online, the Digital Divide Grows Greater
Most U.S. schools are closed, with instruction shifting to the Internet. That's a problem for millions of people without reliable broadband, including 20 percent...
From ACM Opinion
We Need to Talk About 'Cloud Neutrality'
Given how critical the cloud has become for a huge swath of the tech economy, maybe we should ask ourselves whether this infrastructure should be in the hands of...
From ACM Opinion
Trolling Is Now Mainstream Political Discourse
We are heading down the dystopian path. Trolling has become a mainstream form, if not the mainstream form of political discourse.
From ACM Opinion
Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Shut Up
Since 2017, nearly every time the Facebook CEO has tried to sound thoughtful, he's sounded unprepared, shallow, and full of hubris. Time to zip it.
From ACM Opinion
A Controversial Plan to Encrypt More of the Internet
The road to routing all Domain Name System lookups through HTTPS is pocked with disagreements over just how much it will help.
From ACM Opinion
The FBI Wanted a Backdoor to the iPhone. Tim Cook Said No
In 2016, Tim Cook fought the law—and won.
From ACM Opinion
The Robocall Crisis Will Never Be Totally Fixed
Years into the robocalling frenzy, your phone probably still rings off the hook with "important information about your account," updates from the "Chinese embassy...
From ACM Opinion
Huawei's Problem Isn't Chinese Backdoors. It's Buggy Software
A report on Thursday from a British government oversight group found that Chinese telecom-equipment maker Huawei has basic but deeply problematic flaws in its product...
From ACM Opinion
Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question
When Norbert Wiener, the father ofcybernetics, wrote his book The Human Use of Human Beings in 1950, vacuum tubes were still the primary electronic building blocks...
From ACM Opinion
China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market, and the S Has No Plan
You may have heard that China has cornered much of the world's supply of strategic metals and minerals crucial for new technology, including lithium, rare earths...
From ACM Opinion
Trump's Plan to Keep America First in AI
The US leads the world in artificial intelligence technology. Decades of federal research funding, industrial and academic research, and streams of foreign talent...
From ACM Opinion
There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology
In his 2008 white paper that first proposed bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto concluded with: "We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without...
From ACM Opinion
Trump Pledges Investment, But Is Silent on Key Tech Issues
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Trump promised legislation to invest in "the cutting edge industries of the future." But the speech was characteristically...
From ACM Opinion
Tor Is Easier Than Ever. Time to Give It a Try
You probably know about the digital anonymity service Tor, but for whatever reason you may not actually use it.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Fear the Robot Overlords; Embrace Them as Coworkers
In a chilly warehouse just outside of Boston, the brute toils away. It's 600 pounds of orange and black metal and whirring motors, a massive robotic arm that picks...
From ACM Opinion
The S Needs to Engage China on Tech, Or Risk Isolating Itself
The contrast could hardly be more striking. In October, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering speech accusing China of stealing prized US technology...
From ACM Opinion
What the California Wildfires Can Teach s About Data Sharing
When a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant failed, leaking radioactive material...
From ACM Opinion