acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Articles


bg-corner

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Believing Fake News
From ACM Opinion

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Believing Fake News

Sitting in front of a computer not long ago, a tenured history professor faced a challenge that billions of us do every day: deciding whether to believe something...

AI for Cybersecurity Is a Hot New Thing, and a Dangerous Gamble
From ACM Opinion

AI for Cybersecurity Is a Hot New Thing, and a Dangerous Gamble

When I walked around the exhibition floor at this week's massive Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, I was struck by the number of companies boasting...

There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy
From ACM Opinion

There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy

Years ago I spoke with a 16-year-old girl who was considering the idea of having a computer companion in the future, and she described the upside to me.

Google's China Plan Isn't Just Evil, It's Bad for Business
From ACM Opinion

Google's China Plan Isn't Just Evil, It's Bad for Business

Google is proposing a new Faustian bargain with the Chinese government that isn't just morally wrong; it's also terrible for business. Experience has shown that...

What America Must Do to Remain the World's High-Tech Leader
From ACM Opinion

What America Must Do to Remain the World's High-Tech Leader

Artificial intelligence (AI) often is erroneously identified as an emerging technology.

Programmers Need Ethics When Designing the Technologies that Influence People's Lives
From ACM Opinion

Programmers Need Ethics When Designing the Technologies that Influence People's Lives

Computing professionals are on the front lines of almost every aspect of the modern world.

Why Apple Is the Future of Capitalism
From ACM Opinion

Why Apple Is the Future of Capitalism

With Apple Inc. now exceeding $1 trillion in market capitalization, it's tempting to understand this moment in terms of the dominance of all-too-large companies...

Google's Duplex AI Scares Some People, but I Can't Wait for It to Become a Thing
From ACM Opinion

Google's Duplex AI Scares Some People, but I Can't Wait for It to Become a Thing

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote. That line must have zoomed through 5,000 audience brains...

Brains Keep Temporary Molecular Records Before Making a Lasting Memory 
From ACM Opinion

Brains Keep Temporary Molecular Records Before Making a Lasting Memory 

The first dance at my wedding lasted exactly four minutes and 52 seconds, but I'll probably remember it for decades.

Online Hate Is Rampant. Here's How to Keep It From Spreading
From ACM Opinion

Online Hate Is Rampant. Here's How to Keep It From Spreading

Back in the last presidential campaign season, reporters on the tech and politics beats began noticing a rise in far-right memes that supported Trump. Memes being...

Mars Is Frigid, Rusty and Haunted. We Can’t Stop Looking at It.
From ACM Opinion

Mars Is Frigid, Rusty and Haunted. We Can’t Stop Looking at It.

There it was: Glowering red on the dashboard of the sky like an astrological warning light next to the full Blood Moon Friday. Mars.

China's Numbers Force Google to Recalculate Its Morals
From ACM Opinion

China's Numbers Force Google to Recalculate Its Morals

In 2010, Google made a moral calculus. The company had been censoring search results in China at the behest of the Communist government since launching there in...

As Moore's Law Dies, the Chip Giants Seek Fresh Prey
From ACM Opinion

As Moore's Law Dies, the Chip Giants Seek Fresh Prey

After a five-year, $240 billion acquisition spree, there's a suspicion that the nature of deal-making in the semiconductor industry may be starting to change.

Weaponized Information Seeks a New Target in Cyberspace: Users' Minds
From ACM Opinion

Weaponized Information Seeks a New Target in Cyberspace: Users' Minds

The Russian attacks on the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the country's continuing election-related hacking have happened across all three dimensions of cyberspace—physical...

Why Westerners Fear Robots and the Japanese Do Not
From ACM Opinion

Why Westerners Fear Robots and the Japanese Do Not

As a Japanese, I grew up watching anime like "Neon Genesis Evangelion," which depicts a future in which machines and humans merge into cyborg ecstasy.

How NASA Was Born 60 Years Ago from Panic Over a 'Second Moon'
From ACM Opinion

How NASA Was Born 60 Years Ago from Panic Over a 'Second Moon'

The origins of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can be traced all the way back to the Wright brothers, but the real story happened over less than...

Supreme Court Struggles to Define 'Searches' as Technology Changes
From ACM Opinion

Supreme Court Struggles to Define 'Searches' as Technology Changes

What the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means when it protects citizens against an unreasonable search by government agents isn't entirely clear.

How Plausible Are All Those Mission: Impossible Gadgets, Anyway?
From ACM Opinion

How Plausible Are All Those Mission: Impossible Gadgets, Anyway?

It's been 22 years since Tom Cruise infiltrated a CIA vault suspended from a wire in the first Mission: Impossible flick.

How ­.S. Intelligence Agencies Can Find Out What Trump Told Putin
From ACM Opinion

How ­.S. Intelligence Agencies Can Find Out What Trump Told Putin

President Donald Trump's insistence on holding a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin hobbled U.S. intelligence agencies that would usually...

Want Facebook to Censor Speech? Be Careful What You Wish For
From ACM Opinion

Want Facebook to Censor Speech? Be Careful What You Wish For

The only figure as capable as Donald Trump of spinning up an instant and frantic media cycle these days is Mark Zuckerberg, whose ubiquitous company can't manage...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account