acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Articles


bg-corner

Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Threat—Yet
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Threat—Yet

Does artificial intelligence threaten our species, as the cosmologist Stephen Hawking recently suggested?

Get Your Head Around the 13 Boldest Ideas in Science
From ACM Opinion

Get Your Head Around the 13 Boldest Ideas in Science

Science is full of mind-blowing and counterintuitive concepts.

It's Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

It's Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence

Tesla CEO Elon Musk worries it is "potentially more dangerous than nukes."

Ransomware Is the Future of Consumer Cybercrime
From ACM Opinion

Ransomware Is the Future of Consumer Cybercrime

It's 2020, bitter cold outside, you’re running late for work, and the Linux box that controls your car isn't going to start unless you wire $20 worth of Bitcoin...

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console
From ACM Opinion

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console

Even if you're a devoted fan of video games, there's a decent chance you're not familiar with the name Ralph H. Baer.

Trends to Watch in 2015: From Algorithmic Accountability to the ­ber of X
From ACM News

Trends to Watch in 2015: From Algorithmic Accountability to the ­ber of X

Year-end technology prediction lists can be dull fodder devoted to pie-in-the-sky concepts, outlandish marketing claims or rehashes of familiar trends.

Search Gives ­s Superpowers
From ACM News

Search Gives ­s Superpowers

Machine learning—an area of AI focusing on systems that "learn" from data in order to navigate future similar scenarios—is one of the ways we’ve managed to give...

The World Cracks Down on the Internet
From ACM Opinion

The World Cracks Down on the Internet

In September of last year, Chinese authorities announced an unorthodox standard to help them decide whether to punish people for posting online comments that are...

Sure, Artificial Intelligence May End Our World, But That Is Not the Main Problem
From ACM Opinion

Sure, Artificial Intelligence May End Our World, But That Is Not the Main Problem

The robots will rise, we're told.

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
From ACM Opinion

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition

Information technology is revolutionizing products. Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware...

Turing's Spirit Hovers at a Restored Estate
From ACM Opinion

Turing's Spirit Hovers at a Restored Estate

When "Captain Ridley's shooting party" gathered here in late August 1938 as weekend guests at Bletchley Park, a Buckinghamshire country house, they were accompanied...

The Internet That Facebook Built
From Communications of the ACM

The Internet That Facebook Built

The on-ramp might appear free but exiting takes a toll.

How the Smartphone Killed Typing—but Started an AI Revolution
From ACM Opinion

How the Smartphone Killed Typing—but Started an AI Revolution

Steve Jobs often swam against the tide of prevailing opinion.

Algorithms Are Great and All, But They Can Also Ruin Lives
From ACM Opinion

Algorithms Are Great and All, But They Can Also Ruin Lives

On April 5, 2011, 41-year-old John Gass received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Automation Makes ­S Dumb
From ACM Opinion

Automation Makes ­S Dumb

Artificial intelligence has arrived.

When Fitbit Is the Expert Witness
From ACM Opinion

When Fitbit Is the Expert Witness

Self-tracking using a wearable device can be fascinating. It can drive you to exercise more, make you reflect on how much (or little) you sleep, and help you...

A Sad Fact of Life: It's Actually Smart to Be Mean Online
From ACM Opinion

A Sad Fact of Life: It's Actually Smart to Be Mean Online

I'm generally upbeat on Twitter. Many of my posts are enthusiastic blurts about science or research in which I use way too many exclamation points!!

North Korea: Surfing the Net in the World's Most Isolated Nation
From ACM Opinion

North Korea: Surfing the Net in the World's Most Isolated Nation

What's the point of a computer in a hermit country sealed off from the internet?

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat

Ebola sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Bird flu and SARS also send shivers down my spine.

Invasion of the Data Snatchers
From ACM Opinion

Invasion of the Data Snatchers

New technologies are making it easier for private companies and the government to learn about everything we do—in our homes, in our cars, in stores, and within...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account