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Free Trade in a Digital World
From Communications of the ACM

Free Trade in a Digital World

Considering the possible implications for free trade, traditionally based on non-digital goods, for a modern global economy that is increasingly based on intangible...

Know Your Algorithms
From Communications of the ACM

Know Your Algorithms

Stop using hardware to solve software problems.

The Web Is Missing an Essential Part of Infrastructure
From Communications of the ACM

The Web Is Missing an Essential Part of Infrastructure: An Open Web Index

A proposal for building an index of the Web that separates the infrastructure part of the search engine—the index—from the services part that will form the basis...

Cars Are Regulated for Safety, Why Not Information Technology?
From ACM Opinion

Cars Are Regulated for Safety, Why Not Information Technology?

As the computing industry grapples with its role in society, many people, both in the field and outside it, are talking about a crisis of ethics.

Facebook and Google Aren't the Only Ones Tracking Your Clicks
From ACM Opinion

Facebook and Google Aren't the Only Ones Tracking Your Clicks

Criticism of big tech companies that track us across the internet without our informed consent misses a bigger picture: There are hundreds of ad-tracking companies...

How 2D Semiconductors Could Extend Moore's Law
From ACM Opinion

How 2D Semiconductors Could Extend Moore's Law

The number of components in electronic circuits has doubled every two years since the 1960s—a trend known as Moore's law.

No, Scientists Didn't Just 'Reverse Time' with a Quantum Computer
From ACM Opinion

No, Scientists Didn't Just 'Reverse Time' with a Quantum Computer


The FAA Rigorously Tested the Boeing 737's Software
From ACM Opinion

The FAA Rigorously Tested the Boeing 737's Software

Two Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes have crashed under similar circumstances in the past six months, one in October in Indonesia and the other in Ethiopia last week....

A Second 737 Max Crash Raises Questions about Airplane Automation
From ACM Opinion

A Second 737 Max Crash Raises Questions about Airplane Automation

As you read this, over a million people are in flight. Close to a third of the commercial airplanes in the sky at any given moment are Boeing 737s: it is the best...

Are We Really the Smartest Kid on the Cosmic Block?
From ACM Opinion

Are We Really the Smartest Kid on the Cosmic Block?

It is unclear how many intelligent civilizations have arisen in the Milky Way galaxy so far, but if some have, a pressing question comes to mind: Were they or are...

'The Risk Paid Off': How Apple Prevailed in the ­.S.-China Trade War
From ACM Opinion

'The Risk Paid Off': How Apple Prevailed in the ­.S.-China Trade War

President Donald Trump's trade war with China has left a trail of economic wreckage across American industries from soybean farms to auto manufacturers.

China Is Catching ­p to the ­S on Artificial Intelligence Research
From ACM News

China Is Catching ­p to the ­S on Artificial Intelligence Research

Researchers, companies and countries around the world are racing to explore—and exploit—the possibilities of artificial intelligence technology.

Don't Let Robots Pull the Trigger
From ACM Opinion

Don't Let Robots Pull the Trigger

The killer machines are coming. Robotic weapons that target and destroy without human supervision are poised to start a revolution in warfare comparable to the...

Beware of Plausible Predictions of Fantasy Materials
From ACM Opinion

Beware of Plausible Predictions of Fantasy Materials

The hunt is on for materials that have exotic properties, to enhance quantum computers, touch screens and electronic displays, and to double the efficiency of solar...

Don't Be Fooled by Fake Images and Videos Online
From ACM Opinion

Don't Be Fooled by Fake Images and Videos Online

One month before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an "Access Hollywood" recording of Donald Trump was released in which he was heard lewdly talking about women...

AI's Big Challenge
From ACM Opinion

AI's Big Challenge

The recently signed executive order establishing the American AI Initiative correctly identifies artificial intelligence as central to American competitiveness...

Why Scientists Sometimes Make Extraordinary Claims
From ACM Opinion

Why Scientists Sometimes Make Extraordinary Claims

The interstellar object known as 'Oumuamua plunged into our solar system in 2017, leaving a trail of mystery in its wake.

Don't Fight the Robots. Tax Them.
From ACM Opinion

Don't Fight the Robots. Tax Them.

When Bill Gates floated the idea of imposing a tax on robots a couple of years ago, Lawrence Summers, a former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, called...

Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question
From ACM Opinion

Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question

When Norbert Wiener, the father ofcybernetics, wrote his book The Human Use of Human Beings in 1950, vacuum tubes were still the primary electronic building blocks...

China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market, and the ­S Has No Plan
From ACM Opinion

China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market, and the ­S Has No Plan

You may have heard that China has cornered much of the world's supply of strategic metals and minerals crucial for new technology, including lithium, rare earths...
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