Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
A Reverie For the Voyager Probes, Humanity's Calling Cards
In the shadow, one might say, of the Great American Eclipse, a major anniversary in the history of space exploration—and indeed cosmic consciousness—is being celebrated...
From Communications of the ACM
When Does Law Enforcement's Demand to Read Your Data Become a Demand to Read Your Mind?
On cryptographic backdoors and prosthetic intelligence.
From ACM Opinion
A Hunt For Ways to Combat Online Radicalization
Law enforcement officials, technology companies and lawmakers have long tried to limit what they call the "radicalization" of young people over the internet.
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...
From ACM Opinion
The Enduring Legacy of Zork
In 1977, four recent MIT graduates who'd met at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science used the lab's PDP-10 mainframe to develop a computer game that captivated...
From ACM Opinion
Tracing the Sources of Today's Russian cyberthreat
Beyond carrying all of our phone, text and internet communications, cyberspace is an active battleground, with cybercriminals, government agents and even military...
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...
From ACM Opinion
Fighting Neo-Nazis and the Future of Free Expression
In the wake of Charlottesville, both GoDaddy and Google have refused to manage the domain registration for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website that, in the...
From ACM Opinion
Russia's Election Meddling Backfired—big-Time
Intelligence officers sometimes talk about "blowback," when covert actions go bad and end up damaging the country that initiated them.
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