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Andrew Ng Has a Chatbot That Can Help with Depression
From ACM Opinion

Andrew Ng Has a Chatbot That Can Help with Depression

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I've been seeing a virtual therapist.

The Future of Dna Sequencing
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Dna Sequencing

Forty years ago, two papers1, 2 described the first tractable methods for determining the order of the chemical bases in stretches of DNA. Before these 1977 publications...

The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions
From ACM Opinion

The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions

We are surrounded by hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence and robotics—hysteria about how powerful they will become, how quickly, and what they...

China's AI Awakening
From ACM Opinion

China's AI Awakening

On a tropical island that marks the southern tip of China, a computer program called Lengpudashi is playing one-on-one poker against a dozen people at once, and...

Why Is There No Nobel Prize in Technology?
From ACM Opinion

Why Is There No Nobel Prize in Technology?

As the world focuses its attention on this year's recipients of the planet's most prestigious prize, the Nobel, it feels like something's missing from the list:...

How the Chinese Cyberthreat Has evolved
From ACM Opinion

How the Chinese Cyberthreat Has evolved

With more than half of its 1.4 billion people online, the world's most populous country is home to a slew of cyberspies and hackers.

Are Computers Already Smarter Than Humans?
From ACM Opinion

Are Computers Already Smarter Than Humans?

Who's smarter—you, or the computer or mobile device on which you're reading this article? The answer is increasingly complex, and depends on definitions in flux...

The Coming Software Apocalypse
From ACM News

The Coming Software Apocalypse

There were six hours during the night of April 10, 2014, when the entire population of Washington State had no 911 service.

Is Beaming Down In star Trek a Death Sentence?
From ACM Opinion

Is Beaming Down In star Trek a Death Sentence?

In the 2009 movie Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Sulu plummeted down toward the planet Vulcan without a parachute. "Beam us up, beam us up!" Kirk shouted in desperation...

Facebook's Belated Awakening
From ACM Opinion

Facebook's Belated Awakening

Chastened by criticism that Facebook had turned a blind eye to Russia's manipulation of the social network to interfere in the 2016 election, the company's executives...

IoT: The Internet of Terror
From Communications of the ACM

IoT: The Internet of Terror

If it seems like the sky is falling, that's because it is.

Facebook's Ad Scandal Isn't a 'fail,' It's a Feature
From ACM Opinion

Facebook's Ad Scandal Isn't a 'fail,' It's a Feature

What does it take to advertise on Facebook to people who openly call themselves "Jew haters" and want to know "how to burn Jews"? About $10 and 15 minutes, according...

Remembering Lotfi Zadeh, the Inventor of Fuzzy Logic
From ACM Careers

Remembering Lotfi Zadeh, the Inventor of Fuzzy Logic

One night in July, 1964, the logician Lotfi Zadeh found himself alone in his parents' New York apartment, his dinner plans cancelled.

Software Has a Serious Supply-Chain Security Problem
From ACM Opinion

Software Has a Serious Supply-Chain Security Problem

The warnings consumers hear from information security pros tend to focus on trust: Don't click web links or attachments from an untrusted sender.

Cassini Vanishes Into Saturn, Its Mission Celebrated and Mourned
From ACM Opinion

Cassini Vanishes Into Saturn, Its Mission Celebrated and Mourned

NASA&'s Cassini spacecraft, the intrepid robotic explorer of Saturn's magnificent beauty, ended a journey of 20 years on Friday like a shooting star streaking across...

Apple's Faceid Could Be a Powerful Tool For Mass Spying
From ACM Opinion

Apple's Faceid Could Be a Powerful Tool For Mass Spying

This Tuesday Apple unveiled a new line of phones to much fanfare, but one feature immediately fell under scrutiny:FaceID, a tool that would use facial recognition...

You Are Already Living Inside a Computer
From ACM Opinion

You Are Already Living Inside a Computer

Suddenly, everything is a computer. Phones, of course, and televisions. Also toasters and door locks, baby monitors and juicers, doorbells and gas grills. Even ...

What We Know About the Climate Change-Hurricane Connection
From ACM Opinion

What We Know About the Climate Change-Hurricane Connection

With Texas just beginning to recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey and the Southeastern U.S. preparing for Hurricane Irma's iminent arrival, people...

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.

The Fake-News Fallacy
From ACM Opinion

The Fake-News Fallacy

On the evening of October 30, 1938, a seventy-six-year-old millworker in Grover's Mill, New Jersey, named Bill Dock heard something terrifying on the radio.
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