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
Move Over, Siri—the Next Generation of Virtual Assistants Is Almost Here
Virtual voice-controlled assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Google Now are magical.
From ACM Opinion
Why Is Blue Light Before Bedtime Bad For Sleep?
In the modern age of technology it is not uncommon to come home after a long day at work or school and blow off steam by reading an e-book or watching television...
From ACM Opinion
Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?
Famed science-fiction writer Fredric Brown (1906–1972) delighted in creating the shortest of short stories. "Answer," published in 1954, encapsulated a prescient...
From ACM Opinion
Does a Multiverse Fermi Paradox Disprove the Multiverse?
Having just orbited our way through another summer solstice, it feels like time to let slip some more speculative ideas before the hot days of the northern hemisphere...
From ACM Opinion
What Is the Big Secret Surrounding Stingray Surveillance?
Given the amount of mobile phone traffic that cell phone towers transmit, it is no wonder law enforcement agencies target these devices as a rich source of data...
From ACM Opinion
Will Millimeter Waves Maximize 5g Wireless?
Every decade or so since the first cellular networks appeared the companies that make mobile devices and the networks linking them have worked out new requirements...
From ACM Opinion
The Pluto Punch-Through
On July 14, 2015 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally reaches Pluto. But the encounter is brief.
From ACM Opinion
Building an Earth-Size Telescope, 1 Station at a Time
Imagine a trio of aerobatic aircraft. Over the years they've gotten very good at their routine. But they want to add another five or six or seven members.
From ACM Opinion
Fateful Phone Call Spawned Moore's Law
In their new book, Moore's Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley's Quiet Revolutionary, authors Arnold Thackray, David C. Brock and Rachel Jones chronicle...
From ACM Opinion
The Inner Lives of Robots: An Interview with Filmmaker Alex Garland
Like self-replicating machines, robot movies are taking over Hollywood.
From ACM Opinion
First White House Data Chief Discusses His Top Priorities
Data science is not entirely new to Washington, D.C.—nor is DJ Patil, who was recently named as the U.S.'s first chief data scientist.
From ACM Opinion
How to Restore Trust in American Technology
Last November in the town of Wuzhen, China hosted its first large international summit on Internet governance and cybersecurity.
From ACM Opinion
How to Choose the Form of an Infographic: It's All About Context
As a graphics designer, I have a love/hate relationship with circles.
From ACM Opinion
Nanotech Pioneer Langer Wins Award By Thinking Small
Bioengineer Robert Langer has spent his career looking for the next not-so-big thing.
From ACM Opinion
This Mathematician Figured Out How to Solve For Zero
To mathematician Amir Aczel the most important number of all might just be zero.
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...
From ACM Opinion
How the Smartphone Killed Typing—but Started an AI Revolution
Steve Jobs often swam against the tide of prevailing opinion.
From ACM Opinion
Why We're All Beta Testers Now
I taught a class a few years ago at Columbia Business School called "What Makes a Hit a Hit—and a Flop a Flop."
From ACM Opinion
The Surreal Task of Landing on a Comet
On November 12th 2014 the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will eject the small robotic lander Philae on a trajectory that should take it down to the surface...
From ACM Opinion