Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
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...
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...
From ACM Opinion
Why Video Games Are Obsessed With the Apocalypse
Video games are, in a way, the perfect medium through which to depict the post-apocalypse. If we assume that after the collapse of civilisation everyone will revert...
From ACM Opinion
Tracking the Spread of Culture Through Folktales
There's a reason why the premise of American Gods is so alluring: the US is home to a wild and glorious mishmash of gods, folktales, and cultural heritage.
From ACM Opinion
End-to-End Encryption Isn't Enough Security For 'real people'
Government officials continue to seek technology companies' help fighting terrorism and crime. But the most commonly proposed solution would severely limit regular...
From ACM Opinion
We Can Stop Hacking and Trolls, but It Would Ruin the Internet
Cyberterrorism fears are through the roof.
From ACM Opinion
Preserving the Right to Cognitive Liberty
The idea of the human mind as the domain of absolute protection from external intrusion has persisted for centuries.
From ACM Opinion
Tracking Terrorists Online Might Invade Your Privacy
Remember that picture you sent to your family of your children playing in the paddling pool? Or that private text you sent to someone trusted? Or when you searched...
From ACM Opinion
It's Past Time For You to Ditch that Fancy Scientific Calculator
Bruce Sherwood, the author of Matter and Interactions, had a question for me when I saw him at the American Association of Physics Teachers conference not long...
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.
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...
From ACM Opinion
The Attack on Global Privacy Leaves Few Places to Turn
Digital privacy has had a very bad summer. As China and Russia move to block virtual private network services, well over a billion people face losing their best...
From ACM Opinion
Editing Human Embryos with Crispr Is Moving Ahead; Now's the Time to Work Out the Ethics
The announcement by researchers in Portland, Oregon that they've successfully modified the genetic material of a human embryo took some people by surprise.
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.
From ACM Opinion
If You Could 'design' Your Own Child, Would You?
Scientists in Portland, Ore., just succeeded in creating the first genetically modified human embryo in the United States, according to Technology Review.
From ACM Opinion
Greetings, E.t. (please Don't Murder s.)
On Nov. 16, 1974, a few hundred astronomers, government officials and other dignitaries gathered in the tropical forests of Puerto Rico's northwest interior, a...
From ACM Opinion
What Happened to Trump's War on Data?
On May 16, three months' worth of data vanished quietly from the website of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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...
From ACM Opinion
Metrology Is Key to Reproducing Results
Imagine you are a policymaker who needs to know how much carbon is stored in the South American forest.
From ACM Opinion