Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
Can AI Invent?
Recent patent applications for two inventions that are claimed to have been made by an AI are bringing these questions to the fore.
From ACM Opinion
Artificial Intelligence Is Breaking Patent Law
Inventions devised by machines require their own intellectual property law and an international treaty.
From ACM Opinion
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Datasets
Retired and redacted datasets flagged as harmful or biased continue to rear their ugly heads
From ACM Opinion
Governing AI Safety through Independent Audits
Governance of highly automated systems is critical to garner widespread public trust
From ACM Opinion
Wanted: Rules for Pandemic Data Access That Everyone Can Trust
In the wake of COVID-19, a pandemic treaty could be a way to agree on data access before the next emergency strikes.
From ACM Opinion
AI Pioneer: 'The Dangers of Abuse Are Very Real'
Yoshua Bengio is one of three computer scientists who last week shared the US$1-million A. M. Turing award—one of the field's top prizes.
From ACM Opinion
Dreaming of Death Rays: The Search for Laser Weapons
Lasers first emerged nearly 60 years ago, but the idea of using powerful beams of heat or light is hardly new.
From ACM Opinion
Science Candidates Prevail in S Midterm Elections
Results from the United States' midterm elections are still pouring in, but a handful of candidates with backgrounds in science or technology have already nabbed...
From ACM Opinion
Trolling, Hacking and the 2016 S Presidential Election
Late in 2016, then-US President Barack Obama mused in an interview with The New Yorker magazine that he had probably been elected because his campaign had begun...
From ACM Opinion
The Ethics of Computer Science: This Researcher Has a Controversial Proposal
In the midst of growing public concern over artificial intelligence (AI), privacy and the use of data, Brent Hecht has a controversial proposal: the computer-science...
From ACM Opinion
Regulate Artificial Intelligence to Avert Cyber Arms Race
Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, sophisticated and destructive. Each day in 2017, the United States suffered, on average, more than 4,000 ransomware attacks...
From ACM Opinion
Cambridge Analytica Controversy Must Spur Researchers to Update Data Ethics
Revelations keep emerging in the Cambridge Analytica personal-data scandal, which has captured global public attention for more than a week. But when the dust settles...
From ACM Opinion
Does Your Code Stand p to Scrutiny?
Computer code written by scientists forms the basis of an increasing number of studies across many fields—and an increasing number of papers that report the results...
From ACM Opinion
How to Make Replication the Norm
Replication is essential for building confidence in research studies, yet it is still the exception rather than the rule.
From ACM Opinion
Metrology Is Key to Reproducing Results
Imagine you are a policymaker who needs to know how much carbon is stored in the South American forest.
From ACM Opinion
Image Doctoring Must Be Halted
Seven years ago, a cover of The Economist showed Barack Obama, head down on a Louisiana beach in front of an oil rig—the picture of lonely despair.
From ACM Opinion
Five Hacks For Digital Democracy
The election of a politically inexperienced president in the United States, Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the initial rejection of a peace deal...
From ACM Opinion
Track How Technology Is Transforming Work
Advances in technology pose huge challenges for jobs. Productivity levels have never been higher in the United States, for example, but income for the bottom 50...
From ACM Opinion
Nasa Science Chief: 'i Have No Worries About the Resilience of This Country'
Solar physicist Thomas Zurbuchen became NASA's science chief in October, replacing astronaut John Grunsfeld. Just one month later, the US political system wentwhen...
From ACM Opinion
There Is a Blind Spot in AI Research
This week, the White House published its report on the future of artificial intelligence (AI)—a product of four workshops held between May and July 2016 in Seattle...12