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­se or Lose Our Navigation Skills
From ACM Opinion

­se or Lose Our Navigation Skills

In 1984, I was part of a team that was developing a receiver for a satellite-navigation system. After weeks of debugging, the blur of random digits settled on a...

What Would Marvin Minsky Read?
From ACM Opinion

What Would Marvin Minsky Read?

Marvin Minsky was one of the founders of artificial intelligence, and with John McCarthy, he created MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...

Why Technological Innovation Relies on Government Support
From ACM Opinion

Why Technological Innovation Relies on Government Support

Andy Grove, the Silicon Valley pioneer who died last week at age 79, was many things: a survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary and refugee of Cold War Eastern...

Andy Grove's Warning to Silicon Valley
From ACM Opinion

Andy Grove's Warning to Silicon Valley

The praise this week for Andy Grove, who died on Monday at age 79, has been wrapped up in praise for Silicon Valley, where he was a towering figure in the semiconductor...

Feds Set a Risky Precedent By Indicting 7 Iranian Hackers
From ACM Opinion

Feds Set a Risky Precedent By Indicting 7 Iranian Hackers

This week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) created a potentially dangerous precedent when it indicted seven Iranian hackers involved in attacks on the US financial...

GNL Is Not Linux
From Communications of the ACM

GNL Is Not Linux

What's in a name?

How Self-Driving Cars Will Threaten Privacy
From ACM Opinion

How Self-Driving Cars Will Threaten Privacy

Allow me to join you, if I may, on your morning commute sometime in the indeterminate future.

The Internet of Things Is a Surveillance Nightmare
From ACM Opinion

The Internet of Things Is a Surveillance Nightmare

In 2014, security guru Bruce Schneier said, "Surveillance is the business model of the Internet.

The Law Is Clear: The Fbi Cannot Make Apple Rewrite its Os
From ACM Opinion

The Law Is Clear: The Fbi Cannot Make Apple Rewrite its Os

Every once in a while, President Obama removes his Law Professor in Chief hat and puts on his I Get Terrifying Briefings Every Day hat.

Is Blockchain the Most Important It Invention of Our Age?
From ACM Opinion

Is Blockchain the Most Important It Invention of Our Age?

There are not many occasions when one can give an unqualified thumbs-up to something the government does, but this is one such occasion.

Where Computers Defeat Humans, and Where They Can't
From ACM Opinion

Where Computers Defeat Humans, and Where They Can't

ALPHAGO, the artificial intelligence system built by the Google subsidiary DeepMind, has just defeated the human champion, Lee Se-dol, four games to one in the...

Explosive Golf Video Game Has the Best Physics Simulation Ever
From ACM Opinion

Explosive Golf Video Game Has the Best Physics Simulation Ever

Before teeing off, I take a few seconds to line up the shot.

Self-Driving Cars Won't Work ­ntil We Change Our Roads—and Attitudes
From ACM Opinion

Self-Driving Cars Won't Work ­ntil We Change Our Roads—and Attitudes

Autonomous vehicles will join human drivers on our roads sooner than most people think.

After Alphago, What's Next For Ai?
From ACM Opinion

After Alphago, What's Next For Ai?

AlphaGo's victories against legendary Go player Lee Se-dol over the last few days mark a major milestone in AI research.

How Apple Could Fed-Proof Its Software ­pdate System
From ACM Opinion

How Apple Could Fed-Proof Its Software ­pdate System

Apple's refusal to comply with a judge's demand that it help the FBI unlock a terrorist's iPhone has triggered a roiling debate about how much the U.S. government...

A Computer Takes On a Human Master of the Board Game Go
From ACM Opinion

A Computer Takes On a Human Master of the Board Game Go

In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov. It was a momentous occasion for artificial intelligence, showing how far a clever...

Why We Love the Games That Enrage ­S Most
From ACM Opinion

Why We Love the Games That Enrage ­S Most

One afternoon last fall a Reddit user with the handle "FranktheShank1" was enjoying a new video game on his PlayStation 4.

The New Mind Control
From ACM Opinion

The New Mind Control

Over the past century, more than a few great writers have expressed concern about humanity's future.

Toward the End of Pilots
From ACM Opinion

Toward the End of Pilots

A memory that’s stayed with me from my stint in the military nearly 50 years ago is a sign that my supply sergeant kept on his desk: "We’ve been working with less...

A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck
From ACM Opinion

A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck

Let's say computers come for most of our jobs. This may not seem likely at the moment; computer scientists and economists offer wildly varying ideas for how deeply...
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