Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
The Beautiful, Invisible Game
The first goal of the 2014 World Cup was Brazilian, and it was an own goal.
From ACM Opinion
How the Supreme Court Ruling Affects Aereo, the Cloud, and You
The chief of streaming-TV start-up Aereo has said his mission to bring unbundled broadcast TV to the Internet has greater stakes than just the fate of his company—and...
From ACM Opinion
The Case That Might Cripple Facebook
An Irish judge has rendered a preliminary judgment that may have sweeping consequences for U.S. e-commerce firms.
From ACM Opinion
Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues
How hard can it be to determine whether a computer works as promised?
From ACM Opinion
What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality
Even Sunday night HBO watchers are worried the Federal Communications Commission will soon put an end to net neutrality.
From ACM Opinion
Why I'm Not in a Hurry For a 'smart Home'
Here's what it's like to wake up in America's smartest home.
From ACM Opinion
Coder's High
These days I write more than I code, but one of the things I miss about programming is the coder's high: those times when, for hours on end, I would lock my vision...
From ACM Opinion
When Is It Ok to Check a Smartphone at the Dinner Table?
Not long ago, I went to a nice restaurant with five friends. Good food. Better cocktails.
From ACM Opinion
Is China a Scientific Powerhouse?
China has vastly expanded higher education over the past three decades—in 1982, less than 1 percent of China’s twenty-somethings had attended college; by 2010,...
From ACM Opinion
Google's Eyes in the Sky
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page built the search engine that would become Google, they started by making maps.
From ACM Opinion
Turn Detroit Into Drone Valley
The popular recipe for creating the "next" Silicon Valley goes something like this:
From ACM Opinion
China's Anti-Windows 8 Tirade
China's ambivalence about American technology has long been clear, but recently the nation kicked off a fresh, trash-talking effort targeting Windows 8, suggesting...
From ACM Opinion
The Turing Test Is Not What You Think It Is
Whether or not you caught wind of the excited announcement that "Eugene Goostman," a computer program ("chatbot") devised by Vladimir Veselov, Eugene Demchenko,...
From ACM Opinion
The Eccentric Genius Whose Time May Have Finally Come (again)
I've been preoccupied lately with thoughts of marauding broomsticks, genies in bottles, and monkey's paws.
From ACM Opinion
The Nightmare on Connected Home Street
I wake up at four to some old-timey dubstep spewing from my pillows.
From ACM Opinion
Why Online Tracking Is Getting Creepier
The marketers that follow you around the web are getting nosier.
From ACM Opinion
Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet
A few months ago I went to Cambridge, Mass. to check in with the Event Horizon Telescope crew and found Shep Doeleman, the project leader, fresh off the completion...
From ACM Opinion
How to se Tech Like a Teenager
Enough with complaining that young people these days are addicted to their phones. The question you should be asking is: What do they know that you don't?
From ACM Opinion
Big Tech Walking Fine Line on Data
A year after Edward Snowden shocked citizens with details of how much of their lives are being snapped up by the National Security Agency, tech giants have sounded...
From ACM Opinion