Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
How Big Data Algorithms See s—while They Eat S p
Four years ago I interviewed Sam Yagan, then CEO of OKCupid, about the mathematics underlying his free matchmaking site.
From ACM Opinion
Why Germans Are Afraid of Google
These days Germany is known for being many things: a leader in clean technology, a manufacturing powerhouse, Europe's foreign policy center.
From ACM Opinion
The Nsa and Me
The tone of the answering machine message was routine, like a reminder for a dental appointment. But there was also an undercurrent of urgency.
From ACM Opinion
How Humans Could Inhabit the Solar System
With our rising planet's population competing for space and resources, some people are convinced we need to look beyond Earth to help ensure humanity's survival...
From ACM Opinion
Cyborgs: The Truth About Human Augmentation
At the height of summer, when London was baking in unseasonable heat, I made an ill-fated trip to the Serpentine lido in central London.
From ACM Opinion
The Toughest Case: What If Osama Bin Laden Had an Iphone?
In rebuking Apple and Google for their new smartphone encryption polices on Thursday, FBI Director James B. Comey became the latest law enforcement official to...
From ACM Opinion
When Everything Works Like Your Cell Phone
Everyone understands what it means to own a plunger.
From ACM Opinion
Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.i.?
When I was 12, I invented a superhero named Boy Genius, a guy my age who awakens one morning with access to 100 percent of his brain power.
From ACM Opinion
Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids
One of the largest treasure troves of astronomical data comes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), an ongoing scan of the firmament that began 15 years ago...
From ACM Opinion
The $3.2 Billion Man: Can Google's Newest Star Outsmart Apple?
Lounging poolside in 93-degree July heat as Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" thrums through the patio speakers, Tony Fadell takes a sip of nonalcoholic beer and sinks far...
From ACM Opinion
You Should Be Terrified of Superintelligent Machines
In the recent discussion over the risks of developing superintelligent machines—that is, machines with general intelligence greater than that of humans—two narratives...
From ACM Opinion
Our Cyborg Future
In June 2014, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Riley v. California, in which the justices unanimously ruled that police officers may not, without a...
From ACM Opinion
Want to Reform the Nsa? Give Edward Snowden Immunity
In 1970, Christopher Pyle disclosed in public writing that the U.S. Army was running a domestic intelligence program aimed at anti-war and civil-rights activists...
From ACM Opinion
Robot Servants Are Going to Make Your Life Easy. Then They'll Ruin It
Jibo, the "world's first family robot," hit the media hype machine like a bomb.
From ACM Opinion
The Hazards of Going on Autopilot
At 9:18 P.M. on February 12, 2009, Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, took off from Newark International Airport.
From ACM Opinion
The Case For Kill Switches in Military Weaponry
This summer the insurgent group ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Mosul—and along with it, three army divisions' worth of U.S.-supplied equipment from the Iraqi army...
From ACM Opinion
Why Internet Governance Should Be Left to the Engineers
As the Internet and the disruptive innovations it spawns are becoming economically, politically, and culturally vital for the world’s three billion users (and counting)...
From ACM Opinion
John Walker, the Navy Spy Who Defined Crypto-Betrayal, Dead at 77
This week, the man responsible for what is probably the biggest cryptographic failure in military history died—just a few months before he was due to be released...
From ACM Opinion
Why Big Data Has Some Big Problems When It Comes to Public Policy
For all the talk about using big data and data science to solve the world’s problems—and even all the talk about big data as one of the world’s problems—it seems...
From ACM Opinion