Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare
"Are you sure they're there?" the decision maker asks. "They" are Qaeda operatives who have been planning attacks against the United States.
From ACM Opinion
Telegraph to the Iphone: A Short History of Corporate Defiance
The high-stakes stalemate between Apple and the Justice Department isn’t the first time that Washington and Silicon Valley have come to a showdown over security...
From ACM News
Apple's Fbi Battle Is Complicated. Here's What's Really Going On
The news this week that a magistrate ordered Apple to help the FBI hack an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooter suspects has polarized the nation—and...
From ACM Opinion
The Apple Fight Isn't About Encryption
The most striking aspect of Apple's message to customers on Tuesday wasn't the rejection of U.S. authorities' demand that the company help them break the encryption...
From ACM Opinion
Eff to Support Apple in Encryption Battle
We learned on Tuesday evening that a U.S. federal magistrate judge ordered Apple to backdoor an iPhone that was used by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino...
From ACM Opinion
Is D-Wave's Quantum Processor Really 10⁸ Times Faster Than a Normal Computer?
We have been following D-Wave's claims about its quantum hardware at Ars for a number of years. Over that time, my impression has oscillated between skepticism,...
From ACM Opinion
Why Robots and Smart Thermostats Keep America's Spy Chief p at Night
Some people are already used to having their personal information exposed in massive data breaches.
From ACM Opinion
Moore's Law Really Is Dead This Time
Moore's law has died at the age of 51 after an extended illness.
From ACM Opinion
How the Microscope Redefined the Fact
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the inverse is also true: A word is worth a thousand pictures.
From ACM Opinion
Y'all Have a Texas Accent? Siri (and the World) Might Be Slowly Killing It
It was a simple enough question, at least in this part of the world.
From ACM Opinion
Obama's Cybersecurity Plan Is Meant to Secure His Legacy
The end of White House terms are often about trying to shape historic legacies, and President Obama is out to build his in the new area of cybersecurity.
From ACM Opinion
Congress Starts to Get Serious About Online Privacy
Congress could soon vote on a bill that would require law enforcement agencies to get a search warrant from a judge to obtain emails, photographs and other documents...
From ACM Opinion
Your Next New Best Friend Might Be a Robot
One night in late July 2014, a journalist from the Chinese newspaper Southern Weeklyinterviewed a 17-year-old Chinese girl named Xiaoice (pronounced Shao-ice).
From ACM Opinion
To Keep AI Safe—use AI
Software is already pervasive in our society, but artificial intelligence software raises unique concerns even among the technological elite.
From ACM Opinion
The Embarrassing, Destructive Fight Over Biotech's Big Breakthrough
A defining moment in modern biology occurred on July 24, 1978, when biotechnology pioneer Robert Swanson, who had recently co-founded Genentech, brought two young...
From ACM Opinion
AI Is Transforming Google Search. The Rest of the Web Is Next
Yesterday, the 46-year-old Google veteran who oversees its search engine, Amit Singhal, announced his retirement. And in short order, Google revealed that Singhal's...
From ACM Opinion
Crosstown Traffic: The Bedbug Genome
In the great contest that is life, the common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, qualifies as a winner.
From ACM Opinion
When Will We Be Able to Vote Online?
Sooner or later everything seems to go online. Newspapers. TV. Radio. Shopping. Banking. Dating.
From ACM Opinion
The Step Needed to Make Virtual Reality More Real
It's one thing to play the arcade game Whac-A-Mole by swinging around an oversized mallet; it's far easier to whack those moles virtually, controlling the mallet...
From ACM Opinion