Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
3 Brain Technologies to Watch in 2018
Technologies to detect brain activity—fine, we'll come right out and call it mind reading—as well as to change it are moving along so quickly that "a bit of a gold...
From ACM Opinion
License Expired: The Ars Technica 2018 Deathwatch
Wow, that 2017, though. Quite a year. Let's grab a Juicero and take a moment to reflect on the utter dumpster fires that we've witnessed over the past 12 months...
From ACM Opinion
New York City's Bold, Flawed Attempt to Make Algorithms Accountable
The end of a politician's time in office often inspires a turn toward the existential, but few causes are as quixotic as the one chosen by James Vacca, who this...
From ACM Opinion
Driverless Cars Could Make Transportation Free For Everyone, With a Catch
As self-driving cars inch closer to everyday reality, journalists, futurists, economists, and ethicists have weighed in with numerous predictions about autonomous...
From ACM Opinion
Science Fiction When the Future Is Now
AlphaGo, fake news, cyberwar: 2017 has felt science-fictional in the here and now. Space settlement and sea-steading seem just around the bend; so, at times, do...
From ACM Opinion
The Year the Home Button Died
The most convincing lie Steve Jobs ever told was "you already know how to use it."
From ACM Opinion
We Ignore Iran at Our Peril
When it comes to cyberweapons, America is an elephant and Iran is a flea. Still, a flea can be a persistent nuisance, especially for the unprotected.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Get Your Kid an Internet-Connected Toy
For last-minute shoppers, tech toys hold a special appeal.
From ACM Opinion
Augmented Reality's Real Power Will Come From Substance, Not Flash
Last week the pilot light for my water heater went out. I tried to relight it by following the instructions pasted on the side of the heater, but they were as inscrutable...
From ACM Opinion
The Bitcoin Boom: In Code We Trust
You don't need brilliant financial analysis skills to notice that Bitcoin is in a bubble.
From ACM Opinion
Goodbye Internet: How Regional Divides pended the World Wide Web
So, there you have it: 2017 was the year that finally broke the internet.
From ACM Opinion
Five Priorities For Weather and Climate Research
Meteorology is entering a new era. Demand is growing worldwide for forecasts of storms, floods and droughts.
From ACM Opinion
Artificial Intelligence Is Killing the ncanny Valley and Our Grasp on Reality
There's a revolution afoot, and you will know it by the stripes.
From ACM Opinion
Beyond Bitcoin: How Technology Could Help Fix Our Broken Financial System
On a spring day more than 5,000 years ago in the Mesopotamian city of Ur, a foreign merchant sold his wares in exchange for a large bundle of silver.
From ACM Opinion
As AI and Robots Rise Up, Do Humans Need an Upgrade Too?
There is a chip implanted in my hand. I'm serious.
From ACM Opinion
Why These Friendly Robots Can't Be Good Friends to Our Kids
Jibo the robot swivels around when it hears its name and tilts its touchscreen face upward, expectantly.
From ACM Opinion
A nified Theory of Meme Death
Memes aren't built to last. This is an accepted fact of online life.
From ACM Opinion
Quantum Computing Is the Next Big Security Risk
The 20th century gave birth to the Nuclear Age as the power of the atom was harnessed and unleashed.
From ACM Opinion
What I Learned from the People Who Built the Atom Bomb
When I began my career in elementary particle physics, the great figures who taught and inspired me had been part of the Manhattan Project generation that developed...
From ACM Opinion