Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Should We Believe More in Big Data or in Magic?
One year I spent a lot of time with professional magicians.
From ACM Opinion
A Force For Face-to-Face Communication
Clifford I. Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford who died on Saturday, regaled me several times over the years about his method for torturing students...
From ACM Opinion
How Steve Jobs Made the Ipad Succeed When All Other Tablets Failed
Steve Jobs's solution to Google's Android-everywhere strategy was simple and audacious: he unveiled the iPad.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Googlification of Obamacare Really Matters
The Internet is piling yet more vitriol on the shoddy Obamacare rollout in response to a report, by Bloomberg's Alex Wayne, that the administration has recruited...
From ACM Opinion
Fifth Amendment Prohibits Compelled Decryption, New EFF Brief Argues
Encryption is one of the most important ways to safeguard data from prying eyes.
From ACM Opinion
Merkel Balks at E Privacy Push
Chancellor Merkel has put on a good show of being outraged by American spying.
From ACM Opinion
Why We Should Think About the Threat of Artificial Intelligence
If the New York Times's latest article is to be believed, artificial intelligence is moving so fast it sometimes seems almost "magical."
From ACM Opinion
Driverless Cars Are Further Away Than You Think
A silver BMW 5 Series is weaving through traffic at roughly 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph) on a freeway that cuts northeast through Bavaria between Munich and...
From ACM Opinion
Is Ad Avoidance a Problem?
Back in the twentieth century, people were roughly equal in their power to avoid advertising.
From ACM News
Intelligence Chief Clapper Cites 'casablanca' in Dismissing Merkel Mess
You must remember this: A kiss is just a kiss, a spy is just a spy.
From ACM Opinion
All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines
On the evening of February 12, 2009, a Continental Connection commuter flight made its way through blustery weather between Newark, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New...
From ACM Opinion
The Information-Gathering Paradox
Consumer trust is a vital currency for every big Internet company, which helps to explain why the giants of Silicon Valley have gone to great lengths in recent...
From ACM Opinion
Are Smartphones Turning s Into Bad Samaritans?
In late September, on a crowded commuter train in San Francisco, a man shot and killed 20-year-old student Justin Valdez.
From ACM Opinion
The Battle For Power on the Internet
We're in the middle of an epic battle for power in cyberspace.
From ACM Opinion
Why Apple Wants Its Software to Be Free
Who knew Apple would become such a big shareware company?
From ACM Opinion
How to Design—and Defend Against—the Perfect Security Backdoor
We already know the NSA wants to eavesdrop on the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
As We May Type
In 1984, the personal-computer industry was still small enough to be captured, with reasonable fidelity, in a one-volume publication, the Whole Earth Software Catalog...
From ACM Opinion
A Court Order Is an Insider Attack
Commentators on the Lavabit case, including the judge himself, have criticized Lavabit for designing its system in a way that resisted court-ordered access to user...
From ACM Opinion
Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes
Nico Sell, the cofounder of a secure communication app called Wickr, has appeared on television twice.
From ACM News