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What If Facebook Gave ­S an Opposing-Viewpoints Button?
From ACM Opinion

What If Facebook Gave ­S an Opposing-Viewpoints Button?

Imagine if you could flip a switch on Facebook, and turn all the conservative viewpoints that you see liberal, or vice versa. You'd realize your news might look...

Peek Into the Weird and Wonderful Age of AI (yes, There's a Chatbot)
From ACM Opinion

Peek Into the Weird and Wonderful Age of AI (yes, There's a Chatbot)

On March 23, Microsoft revealed Tay, a Twitter bot trained to chat like a millennial. It worked … too well.

Doom Is a Gleefully Gory Ballet Set in a Nightmare
From ACM Opinion

Doom Is a Gleefully Gory Ballet Set in a Nightmare

My instinct upon leaping into id Software's hyper-gruesome Doom, a gonzo shooter out May 13 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, is to dawdle.

The Coming Horror of Virtual Reality
From ACM Opinion

The Coming Horror of Virtual Reality

If Kitchen, a five-minute virtual-reality demo created by the Japanese studio Capcom, were a short film, few viewers would be moved to panic by its misery of horror...

Okcupid Study Reveals the Perils of Big-Data Science
From ACM Opinion

Okcupid Study Reveals the Perils of Big-Data Science

On May 8, a group of Danish researchers publicly released a dataset of nearly 70,000 users of the online dating site OkCupid, including usernames, age, gender,...

After Three Weeks in China, It's Clear Beijing Is Silicon Valley's Only True Competitor
From ACM Opinion

After Three Weeks in China, It's Clear Beijing Is Silicon Valley's Only True Competitor

After selling my startup, Shopkick, to SK Planet in 2014, and handing over my CEO role a year later, I packed up my 1- and 3-year-old sons and my wife Angel, and...

The Seven Deadly Social Networks
From ACM Opinion

The Seven Deadly Social Networks

Almost five years ago, in a soliloquy transcribed by The Wall Street Journal, Reid Hoffman suggested a comprehensive theory of social-network success.

Like It or Not, Facebook Has the Right to Choose Your News
From ACM Opinion

Like It or Not, Facebook Has the Right to Choose Your News

There's an old saying that you shouldn't pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

The Creators of Siri Just Showed Off Their Next AI Assistant, Viv, and It's Incredible
From ACM Opinion

The Creators of Siri Just Showed Off Their Next AI Assistant, Viv, and It's Incredible

Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer created the artificial intelligence behind Siri, Apple's iconic digital assistant, and one of the first modern apps to capably handle...

What Would Happen If G.p.s. Failed?
From ACM Opinion

What Would Happen If G.p.s. Failed?

The radio signal that is the lifeblood of the Global Positioning System originates from a constellation of twenty-four satellites, orbiting more than twelve thousand...

How Wooden Toys Teach Kids to Code
From ACM Opinion

How Wooden Toys Teach Kids to Code

Like most parents,  I want my young children to be prepared for the future—one in which knowing how to program a computer will be a basic skill, like clicking "Skip...

The Future of Encryption Is in These Politicians' Hands
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Encryption Is in These Politicians' Hands

Encryption is complicated. Legislating for it, even more so.

An Ipad Misplaced at the Airport Takes Its Own Vacation
From ACM Opinion

An Ipad Misplaced at the Airport Takes Its Own Vacation

Last month, Shelby Bonnie's iPad vanished from his carry-on bag somewhere at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after a red-eye flight from San Francisco...

You Can't Escape Data Surveillance In America
From ACM Opinion

You Can't Escape Data Surveillance In America

In America, surveillance has always played an outsized role in the relationship between creditors and debtors.

Is Predictive Policing the Law-Enforcement Tactic of the Future?
From ACM Opinion

Is Predictive Policing the Law-Enforcement Tactic of the Future?

As big data transforms industries ranging from retailing to health care, it’s also becoming a more important tool for police departments, which are turning to data...

Making the Web Just a Second Faster Would Be a Big Deal
From ACM Opinion

Making the Web Just a Second Faster Would Be a Big Deal

The web is too damn slow.

Will Smell Ever Come to Smartphones?
From ACM Opinion

Will Smell Ever Come to Smartphones?

Two years ago, at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York, I witnessed David Edwards receive what he claimed was the world's first transatlantic ...

One Easy Way to Make Wikipedia Better
From ACM Opinion

One Easy Way to Make Wikipedia Better

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus existed years before Wikipedia was founded. I’m using "existed" loosely here, of course, because there's no such thing as a Pacific...

What Cyberwar Against Isis Should Look Like
From ACM Opinion

What Cyberwar Against Isis Should Look Like

Pentagon officials have publicly said, in recent weeks, that they're hitting ISIS not only with bullets and bombs but also with cyberoffensive operations.

Who's Responsible When a Self-Driving Car Crashes?
From ACM Opinion

Who's Responsible When a Self-Driving Car Crashes?

Valentine's Day was a bummer in Mountain View, Calif. For the first time, one of Google's self-driving cars, a modified Lexus SUV, caused a crash.
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