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
I Never Thought I'd Be Marching For Science
But the anti-science stance of the current administration — silencing scientists, removing data from federal websites, proposing drastic funding cuts — hits my...
From ACM Opinion
Ghost in the Sell: Hollywood's Mischievous Vision of AI
Watch enough science fiction movies and you'll probably come to the conclusion that humans are living on borrowed time.
From ACM Opinion
The ltimate Cure For the Fake-News Epidemic Will Be More Skeptical Readers
"Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President." "FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead of Apparent Murder-Suicide." "Rush Reveals...
From ACM Opinion
When It Comes to Safety, Autonomous Cars Are Still 'teen Drivers'
Automakers ask drivers to trust and share U.S. roadways with autonomous vehicles, but there is no easy answer as to when they will be considered "safe."
From ACM Opinion
Darpa's Biotech Chief Says 2017 Will 'blow Our Minds'
The Pentagon's research and development division, DARPA—the creative force behind the internet and GPS—retooled itself three years ago to create a new office dedicated...
From ACM Opinion
Trump's First 100 Days: Technology, Privacy and Intelligence
President-elect Donald Trump's views on technology and tech policy were not prominent campaign features on his contentious path to the White House.
From ACM Opinion
Trump's Plans to Shake p the Tech World
Donald Trump's ascension to the White House had very little to do with his views on the spread of high-speed broadband, wireless spectrum allocation—or any number...
From ACM Opinion
Richard Dawkins and Other Prominent Scientists React to Trump's Win
This week the U.S. elected businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump as its 45th president. As Scientific American has reported in the run-up to the election...
From ACM Opinion
Why Robots Must Learn to Tell S 'no'
HAL 9000, the sentient computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, offers an ominous glimpse of a future in which machines endowed with artificial intelligence reject human...
From ACM Opinion
E-Voting Refuses to Die Even Though It's Neither Secure Nor Secret
In theory, using the internet or e-mail to vote for the U.S. president sounds like a good idea.
From ACM Opinion
AI Is Not Out to Get S
Elon Musk's new plan to go all-in on self-driving vehicles puts a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence needed to ensure his Teslas can read and react to...
From ACM Opinion
Could Obama's Threat of Retaliation Against Russia Lead to Cyberwar?
Late last week Obama administration officials used NBC News to send Moscow a cryptic threat: The U.S. government is "contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert...
From ACM Opinion
Grading the Presidential Candidates on Science
Two weeks ago, Scientific American asked for your help in grading the presidential candidates on their answers to 20 questions about various aspects of scientific...
From ACM Opinion
20 Big Questions About the Future of Humanity
1. Does humanity have a future beyond Earth?
From ACM Opinion
Mind-Controlled Robo-Skeleton Enables Paraplegics to Regain Some Motion
Patients paralyzed by a spinal cord injury can face a grim and grueling recovery process—one in which regaining function is far from a sure thing. But a new study...
From ACM Opinion
Americans Are Wary About Body-Enhancement Technologies
Emerging technologies that draw from biomedical technology, nanotechnology, information technology and other fields are developing at a rapid pace and may lead...
From ACM Opinion
Rise of the Ag-Bots Will Not Sow Seeds of nemployment
Larry Stap's fifth-generation family dairy farm has come a long way since his great grandfather established it in Lynden, Wash., in 1910.
From ACM Opinion
How the Computer Beat the Go Player
The victory in March of the computer program AlphaGo over one of the world's top handful of go players marks the highest accomplishment to date for the burgeoning...
From ACM Opinion
Machines that Talk to S May Soon Sense Our Feelings, Too
After great promise in the 1960s that machines would soon think like humans, progress stalled for decades. Only in the past 10 years or so has research picked up...
From ACM Opinion