Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Five Emerging Cyber-Threats to Worry About in 2019
Last year was full of cybersecurity disasters, from the revelation of security flaws in billions of microchips to massive data breaches and attacks using malicious...
From ACM Opinion
Happy 18th Birthday, Wikipedia. Let's Celebrate the Internet's Good Grown-p.
On Tuesday, Wikipedia celebrates its 18th birthday. If the massive crowdsourced encyclopedia project were human, then in most countries, it would just now be considered...
From ACM Opinion
The Quiet Threat Inside 'Internet of Things' Devices
As Americans increasingly buy and install smart devices in their homes, all those cheap interconnected devices create new security problems for individuals and...
From ACM Opinion
Tiny Computers Could Transform Our Lives
Remember Innerspace, the comedy sci-fi movie from the '80s about a microscopic manned pod injected into a human?
From ACM Opinion
When Chinese Hackers Declared War on the Rest of s
Late one Wednesday in March 2015, an alarm sounded in the offices of GitHub, a San Francisco-based software firm. The company's offices exemplified the kind of...
From ACM Opinion
Dreaming of Death Rays: The Search for Laser Weapons
Lasers first emerged nearly 60 years ago, but the idea of using powerful beams of heat or light is hardly new.
From ACM News
Countering Russian Disinformation the Baltic Nations' Way
As the new Congress begins, it will soon discuss the comprehensive reports to the U.S. Senate on the disinformation campaign of half-truths, outright fabrications...
From ACM Opinion
Tech Giants, Gorging on AI Professors Is Bad for You
In an essay written in 1833, the British economist William Forster Lloyd made a profound observation using the example of cattle grazing.
From ACM Opinion
Never Mind Killer Robots; Here Are Six Real AI Dangers to Watch Out for in 2019
Once it was fashionable to fret about the prospect of super-intelligent machines taking over the world. The past year showed that AI may cause all sorts of hazards...
From ACM Opinion
A Reason to Despair About the Digital Future: Deepfakes
A despairing prediction for the digital future came from an unlikely source recently. Speaking of "deepfakes," or media manipulated through artificial intelligence...
From ACM Opinion
What's Behind China's Space Programme Expansion
China is a relative late-bloomer when it comes to the world of space exploration. But just 15 years after it first sent an astronaut into orbit, China has become...
From ACM Opinion
Tor Is Easier Than Ever. Time to Give It a Try
You probably know about the digital anonymity service Tor, but for whatever reason you may not actually use it.
From ACM Opinion
Is Quantum Computing a Cybersecurity Threat?
Cybersecurity researchers and analysts are rightly worried that a new type of computer, based on quantum physics rather than more standard electronics, could ...
From ACM Opinion
Don't Fear the Robot Overlords; Embrace Them as Coworkers
In a chilly warehouse just outside of Boston, the brute toils away. It's 600 pounds of orange and black metal and whirring motors, a massive robotic arm that picks...
From ACM Opinion
The Tech That Was Fixed in 2018 and the Tech That Still Needs Fixing
Personal technology was so awful this year that nobody would think you were paranoid if you dug a hole and buried your computer, phone and smart speaker under six...
From ACM Opinion
How China Got a Head Start in Fintech, and Why the West Won't Catch p
In 2013 I moved from Paris to Beijing to study China's financial system. I stayed for two years and became fluent enough to translate economics books from Mandarin...
From ACM Opinion
The Search for Anti-Conservative Bias on Google
Last Wednesday, a day after Google's C.E.O., Sundar Pichai, sat before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the company's search engine,Donald...
From ACM Opinion
Google Isn't the Company that We Should Have Handed the Web Over To
With Microsoft's decision to end development of its own Web rendering engine and switch to Chromium, control over the Web has functionally been ceded to Google....
From ACM Opinion