Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Before Reproducibility Must Come Preproducibility
From time to time over the past few years, I've politely refused requests to referee an article on the grounds that it lacks enough information for me to check...
From ACM Opinion
What Are These 'Levels' of Autonomous Vehicles?
As automated and autonomous vehicles become more common on U.S. roads, it's worth a look at what these machines can—and can't—do.
From ACM Opinion
Automated Health Care Offers Freedom from Shame, But Is It What Patients Need?
A few years ago, Timothy Bickmore, a computer scientist at Northeastern University, developed an artificial-intelligence program to help low-income patients at...
From ACM Opinion
So, mm, Google Duplex's Chatter Is Not Quite Human
Google's Duplex voice assistant drew applause last week at the company's annual I/O developer conference after CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated the artificially intelligent...
From ACM Opinion
How Tech Can Turn Doctors Into Clerical Workers
There are times when the diagnosis announces itself as the patient walks in, because the body is, among other things, a text.
From ACM Opinion
Europe's Data Protection Law Is a Big, Confusing Mess
There is a growing realization that our data is under attack.
From ACM Opinion
How the Enlightenment Ends
Three years ago, at a conference on transatlantic issues, the subject of artificial intelligence appeared on the agenda. I was on the verge of skipping that session—it...
From ACM Opinion
Can Artificial Intelligence Help Find Alien Intelligence?
In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), we've often looked for signs of intelligence, technology and communication that are similar to our own. ...
From ACM Opinion
The Singularity Is Not Near: The Intellectual Fraud of the 'Singularitarians'
Technology was identified as the true official religion of the modern state more than seventy years ago by the late Christian anarchist philosopher Jacques Ellul...
From ACM Opinion
The Next Big Discovery in Astronomy? Scientists Probably Found It Years Ago, But They Don't Know It Yet
Earlier this year, astronomers stumbled upon a fascinating finding: Thousands of black holes likely exist near the center of our galaxy.
From ACM Opinion
Facial Recognition Tech Is Creepy When It Works, And Creepier When It Doesn't
For the last few years, police forces around China have invested heavily to build the world's largest video surveillance and facial recognition system, incorporating...
From ACM Opinion
Free Will, Video Games, and the Most Profound Quantum Mystery
The word "predictable" first entered the English language two centuries ago.
From ACM Opinion
'2001: A Space Odyssey' Is Still the 'ltimate Trip'
In the spring of 1964 the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was very worried. NASA was about to fly the Mariner 4 space probe past Mars.
From ACM Opinion
Richard Feynman at 100
A pre-eminent twentieth-century physicist and a Nobel laureate: Richard Feynman was certainly those. He was also much more.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Duplex Could Make Assistant the Most Lifelike AI Yet
The conversation seems mundane. At least, at first.
From ACM Opinion
How Frightened Should We Be of A.I.?
Precisely how and when will our curiosity kill us?
From ACM Opinion
One Space Between Each Sentence, They Said. Science Just Proved Them Wrong.
In the beginning, the rules of the space bar were simple. Two spaces after each period. Every time. Easy.
From ACM Opinion