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These Are Not the Robots We Were Promised
From ACM Opinion

These Are Not the Robots We Were Promised

From the moment we humans first imagined having mechanical servants at our beck and call, we've assumed they would be constructed in our own image.

Stop Cyberattacks. Just Add Robots
From ACM Opinion

Stop Cyberattacks. Just Add Robots

"Are you a hacker?"

Artificial Intelligence: The Future Is Superintelligent
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence: The Future Is Superintelligent

Max Tegmark is a renowned physicist. He is also the irrepressibly optimistic co-founder of the Future of Life Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts (motto: "Technology...

Is That Social Bot Behaving Unethically?
From Communications of the ACM

Is That Social Bot Behaving Unethically?

A procedure for reflection and discourse on the behavior of bots in the context of law, deception, and societal norms.

Sorry, Banning 'killer Robots' Just Isn't Practical
From ACM Opinion

Sorry, Banning 'killer Robots' Just Isn't Practical

Late Sunday, 116 entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, released a letter to the United Nations warning of the dangerous "Pandora's Box" presented by weapons that...

What the Announced nsa / Cyber Command Split means
From ACM Opinion

What the Announced nsa / Cyber Command Split means

The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agency or NSA shows that cyber intelligence collection...

Everyone Thinks That Automation Will Take Our Jobs. The Evidence Disagrees
From ACM Opinion

Everyone Thinks That Automation Will Take Our Jobs. The Evidence Disagrees

Last year, the Japanese company SoftBank opened a cell phone store in Tokyo and staffed it entirely with sales associates named Pepper. This wasn't as hard as it...

Magical Technologies Just Over the Horizon
From ACM Opinion

Magical Technologies Just Over the Horizon

We the people have always been helplessly drawn to the concept of magic: the notion that you can will something to happen by wiggling your nose, speaking special...

Bot and Bothered
From ACM Opinion

Bot and Bothered

Facebook has been working on artificial intelligence that claims to be great at negotiating, makes up its own language and learns to lie.

Human Vs. Machine Contests (real or Fictional) But Involving Ordinary Humans
From ACM Opinion

Human Vs. Machine Contests (real or Fictional) But Involving Ordinary Humans

I'm looking for a famous (or at least interesting) human vs. machine contest to use as an analogy in an article.

Fear of a Robot Planet
From ACM Opinion

Fear of a Robot Planet

It was in the 12th century that the great brass head built by Albertus Magnus moved its mouth for the first time, breathing steam as it spoke to Magnus' young religious...

Better Business Through Sci-Fi
From ACM Opinion

Better Business Through Sci-Fi

About five years ago, Ari Popper enrolled in a course on science-fiction writing at the University of California, Los Angeles, hoping to distract himself from the...

The Guardian View on the Future of Crime: It Will Be Online
From ACM Opinion

The Guardian View on the Future of Crime: It Will Be Online

When software gets smarter, the first effect is to empower the already powerful.

Zuckerberg and Musk Are Both Wrong About AI
From ACM Opinion

Zuckerberg and Musk Are Both Wrong About AI

Back in 2015, a group of business leaders and scientists published an "open letter" about how controlling artificial superintelligence might be the most urgent...

AI Could Revolutionize War As Much As Nukes
From ACM Opinion

AI Could Revolutionize War As Much As Nukes

In 1899, the world's most powerful nations signed a treaty at The Hague that banned military use of aircraft, fearing the emerging technology's destructive power...

Is Anyone Home? A Way to Find Out If AI Has Become Self-Aware
From ACM Opinion

Is Anyone Home? A Way to Find Out If AI Has Become Self-Aware

Every moment of your waking life and whenever you dream, you have the distinct inner feeling of being "you."

Please Prove You're Not a Robot
From ACM Opinion

Please Prove You're Not a Robot

When science fiction writers first imagined robot invasions, the idea was that bots would become smart and powerful enough to take over the world by force, whether...

Why Robots Won't Steal All Our Jobs
From ACM Opinion

Why Robots Won't Steal All Our Jobs

Don't worry. The robots won't destroy all our jobs. History suggests just the opposite—that new technologies inspire new jobs.

Asimov's Laws Won't Stop Robots Harming Humans So We've Developed a Better solution
From ACM Opinion

Asimov's Laws Won't Stop Robots Harming Humans So We've Developed a Better solution

How do you stop a robot from hurting people?

Could a Robot Be President?
From ACM Opinion

Could a Robot Be President?

President Donald Trump reportedly spends his nights alone in the White House, watching TV news and yelling at the screen.
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