Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Proposed State Bans on Phone Encryption Make Zero Sense
American politics has long accepted the strange notion that just a pair of states—namely Iowa and New Hampshire—get an outsize vote in choosing America’s next president...
From ACM Opinion
There May Be a Way to Allow Mass Surveillance and Preserve Our Privacy at the Same Time
If we've learned anything over the past few years, it's that governments will make all sorts of excuses to justify the surveillance of its citizens.
From ACM News
Is Blockchain the Most Important It Invention of Our Age?
There are not many occasions when one can give an unqualified thumbs-up to something the government does, but this is one such occasion.
From ACM Opinion
If Killer Robots Arrive, the Terminator Will Be the Least of Our Problems
Autonomous weapons experts sounded the alarm last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, cautioning that unless governments act to limit these...
From ACM Opinion
Power Wars: How Obama Justified, Expanded Bush-Era Surveillance
Over the winter holidays, I took some well-needed time offline, away from e-mail and social media.
From Communications of the ACM
Having a Conversation About Bulk Surveillance
Considering a controversial subject that extends far beyond the collection of phone metadata.
From Communications of the ACM
Lessons from the Tech Transfer Trenches
Moving from the research realm to real-world business application.
From Communications of the ACM
Code Hoarding
Committing to commits, and the beauty of summarizing graphs.
From Communications of the ACM
Broadening Access to Computing Education State By State
Influencing computer science education at the state level.
From Communications of the ACM
Privacy Research Directions
What must we learn in order to support privacy requirements as technology advances?
From ACM Opinion
The Case For Looking to the States, Not the Federal Government, to Protect Your Privacy
A year ago, President Obama stood behind a podium at the Federal Trade Commission and called for legislation that would set a single national standard for when...
From ACM Opinion
'crispr' Breaks Out Of the Lab
A new gene-editing technology has been relentlessly hyped over the past year, and it goes by a catchy if rather incongruous acronym: Crispr.
From ACM Opinion
What Makes a 'smart Gun' Smart?
Every time a toddler accidentally shoots a friend or family member, a teen kills himself via gunshot or a shooter perpetrates an act of mass violence, public discussion...
From ACM Opinion
Why It's So Hard For Washington to Draft Tech Companies Against the Islamic State
Here's the basic problem the government faces when it comes to stopping the Islamic State's Internet propaganda: It needs Silicon Valley's help. But some tech companies—even...
From ACM Opinion
In 2016, Terror Suspects and 7-Eleven Thieves May Bring Surveillance to Supreme Court
It has now been 2.5 years since the first Snowden revelations were published. And in 2015, government surveillance marched on in both large (the National Security...
From ACM Opinion
In 2015, Promising Surveillance Cases Ran Into Legal Brick Walls
Today, the first Snowden disclosures in 2013 feel like a distant memory.
From ACM Opinion
Security's Biggest Winners and Losers in 2015
This year, lawmakers surprised us by taking initial steps—albeit, baby ones—to rein in some of the NSA's mass spying and provide better oversight of the intelligence...
From ACM Opinion
Learning to Apply Data Science to Business Problems
One of the most exciting parts of data science is that it can be applied to many domains of knowledge, given our newfound ability to gather valuable data on almost...
From ACM Opinion