Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Wikimedia Foundation Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Wikipr
On October 21, the Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement from Sue Gardner, our executive director, condemning the black hat practice of paid advocacy editing...
From ACM Opinion
Why Companies Desperately Need to Make Wearables Cool
Both consumer electronics and apparel are notoriously difficult businesses competing in mature industries. Wearable technology—everything from activity trackers...
From ACM Opinion
Why Google's Fair Use Victory In Google Books Suit Is A Big Deal—And Why It Isn't
Federal judge Denny Chin rejected a copyright challenge Google’s practices of scanning books into digital format and presenting snippets of those scans in search...
From ACM Opinion
Blinded By the Light
The probe sails through space, traveling the distance of the LA-to-Chicago red-eye in a minute.
From ACM Opinion
Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet. Here's How They Did It
The internet backbone—the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels—went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active...
From ACM Opinion
Drm in Cars Will Drive Consumers Crazy
Forget extra cupholders or power windows: the new Renault Zoe comes with a "feature" that absolutely nobody wants.
From ACM News
The Daunting Challenge of Secure Email
When users of Lavabit, an encrypted e-mail service, logged on to the site this past August, they found a bewildering letter on the site's main page.
From ACM Opinion
A Stronger 'online Eraser' Law Would Be a Mistake
Excited teenagers—in other words normal teenagers—have never been famous for consistently wise decisions, nor should they be.
From ACM Opinion
Should Tech Designers Go With Their Guts—or the Data?
For many tech companies, design is no longer subjective.
From ACM Opinion
The False Promise of Classroom Technology
The cover story of Life magazine on Oct. 16 was "U.S. Schools: They Face a Crisis."
From ACM Opinion
No, Bitcoin Isn't Broken
"Bitcoin Is Broken," proclaimed Ittay Eyal and Emin Gun Sirer, two Cornell computer scientists.
From ACM Opinion
Bitcoin Is Broken
And not just superficially so, but fundamentally, at the core protocol level.
From ACM Opinion
Is Google Autocomplete Evil?
"Women shouldn't have rights." "Women shouldn't vote." "Women shouldn't work."
From ACM Opinion
Report on Government Information Requests
We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the...
From ACM Opinion
Should We Believe More in Big Data or in Magic?
One year I spent a lot of time with professional magicians.
From ACM Opinion
A Force For Face-to-Face Communication
Clifford I. Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford who died on Saturday, regaled me several times over the years about his method for torturing students...
From ACM Opinion
How Steve Jobs Made the Ipad Succeed When All Other Tablets Failed
Steve Jobs's solution to Google's Android-everywhere strategy was simple and audacious: he unveiled the iPad.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Googlification of Obamacare Really Matters
The Internet is piling yet more vitriol on the shoddy Obamacare rollout in response to a report, by Bloomberg's Alex Wayne, that the administration has recruited...
From ACM Opinion