acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Articles


bg-corner

Why Westerners Fear Robots and the Japanese Do Not
From ACM Opinion

Why Westerners Fear Robots and the Japanese Do Not

As a Japanese, I grew up watching anime like "Neon Genesis Evangelion," which depicts a future in which machines and humans merge into cyborg ecstasy.

AI Can Be Sexist and Racist; It's Time to Make It Fair
From ACM Opinion

AI Can Be Sexist and Racist; It's Time to Make It Fair

When Google Translate converts news articles written in Spanish into English, phrases referring to women often become "he said" or "he wrote."

How to Tell If You're Talking to a Bot
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...

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...

Alexa: Don't Let My 2-Year-Old Talk to You That Way
From ACM Opinion

Alexa: Don't Let My 2-Year-Old Talk to You That Way

Parents, your child may have a new secret friend: your smart speaker.

This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins
From ACM Opinion

This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins

The robot arm is performing a peculiar kind of Sisyphean task.

The ­.S. Once Again Has the World's Fastest Supercomputer. Keep ­p the Hustle.
From ACM Opinion

The ­.S. Once Again Has the World's Fastest Supercomputer. Keep ­p the Hustle.

The United States has knocked China out of the No. 1 position in supercomputing.

A Plea for AI That Serves Humanity Instead of Replacing It
From ACM Opinion

A Plea for AI That Serves Humanity Instead of Replacing It

Sixty-two years ago this summer, Dartmouth professor John McCarthy coined the term artificial intelligence. Joi Ito, director of MIT's Media Lab, has come to think...

The Erosion of Reality
From ACM Opinion

The Erosion of Reality

Let me say this upfront: I'm not convinced that 'superintelligent' AI are the most pressing threat from coming generations of deep learning machines.

What Is Consciousness?
From ACM Opinion

What Is Consciousness?

Consciousness is everything you experience.

What Are These 'Levels' of Autonomous Vehicles?
From ACM Opinion

What Are These 'Levels' of Autonomous Vehicles?

As automated and autonomous vehicles become more common on U.S. roads, it's worth a look at what these machines can—and can't—do.

Automated Health Care Offers Freedom from Shame, But Is It What Patients Need?
From ACM Opinion

Automated Health Care Offers Freedom from Shame, But Is It What Patients Need?

A few years ago, Timothy Bickmore, a computer scientist at Northeastern University, developed an artificial-intelligence program to help low-income patients at...

So, ­mm, Google Duplex's Chatter Is Not Quite Human
From ACM Opinion

So, ­mm, Google Duplex's Chatter Is Not Quite Human

Google's Duplex voice assistant drew applause last week at the company's annual I/O developer conference after CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated the artificially intelligent...

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.

I Tried to Get an AI to Write This Story
From ACM Opinion

I Tried to Get an AI to Write This Story

What a time for artificial intelligence!

How the Enlightenment Ends
From ACM Opinion

How the Enlightenment Ends

Three years ago, at a conference on transatlantic issues, the subject of artificial intelligence appeared on the agenda. I was on the verge of skipping that session—it...

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Find Alien Intelligence?
From ACM Opinion

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Find Alien Intelligence?

In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), we've often looked for signs of intelligence, technology and communication that are similar to our own. ...

The Singularity Is Not Near: The Intellectual Fraud of the 'Singularitarians'
From ACM Opinion

The Singularity Is Not Near: The Intellectual Fraud of the 'Singularitarians'

Technology was identified as the true official religion of the modern state more than seventy years ago by the late Christian anarchist philosopher Jacques Ellul...

'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.

Google's Duplex Could Make Assistant the Most Lifelike AI Yet
From ACM Opinion

Google's Duplex Could Make Assistant the Most Lifelike AI Yet

The conversation seems mundane. At least, at first.
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account