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J. Craig Venter on Dna and Life's Mysteries
From ACM Opinion

J. Craig Venter on Dna and Life's Mysteries

J. Craig Venter is in the life business.

Bitcoin and the Digital-Currency Revolution
From ACM Opinion

Bitcoin and the Digital-Currency Revolution

About a half-billion dollars worth of it vanished from an online exchange in Tokyo.

'soft' Artificial Intelligence Is Suddenly Everywhere
From ACM Opinion

'soft' Artificial Intelligence Is Suddenly Everywhere


What the World Will Speak in 2115
From ACM Opinion

What the World Will Speak in 2115

In 1880 a Bavarian priest created a language that he hoped the whole world could use.

Sony Made It Easy, but Any of ­S Could Get Hacked
From ACM Opinion

Sony Made It Easy, but Any of ­S Could Get Hacked

Earlier this month, a mysterious group that calls itself Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems and began revealing many...

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?

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.

What Could Be Lost as Einstein's Papers Go Online
From ACM Opinion

What Could Be Lost as Einstein's Papers Go Online

When I heard that Albert Einstein's papers were going to be published free online, I was thrilled—at least initially.

Automation Makes ­S Dumb
From ACM Opinion

Automation Makes ­S Dumb

Artificial intelligence has arrived.

Baidu's Andrew Ng on Deep Learning and Innovation in Silicon Valley
From ACM Opinion

Baidu's Andrew Ng on Deep Learning and Innovation in Silicon Valley

Six months ago, Chinese Internet-search giant Baidu signaled its ambitions to innovate by opening an artificial-intelligence center in Silicon Valley, in Google's...

Why All Employees Must Learn to Code
From ACM Opinion

Why All Employees Must Learn to Code

The most important technological skill for all employees is being able to code.

Google's Schmidt Fires Back Over Encryption
From ACM Opinion

Google's Schmidt Fires Back Over Encryption

To hear Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt tell it, the U.S. government has only itself to blame for new efforts by Google and Apple Inc. to keep police...

Roots of a High-Tech Revolution
From ACM Careers

Roots of a High-Tech Revolution

Chuck Hull, 75, is co-founder and chief technology officer of 3D Systems. He is the inventor of the 3-D printer, which recently celebrated its 31st anniversary.

Why the Public Library Beats Amazon—for Now
From ACM Opinion

Why the Public Library Beats Amazon—for Now

A growing stack of companies would like you to pay a monthly fee to read e-books, just like you subscribe to Netflix to binge on movies and TV shows.

Okcupid's Co-Founder on Experiments, Data Science and the Myth of the 'unicorn'
From ACM Opinion

Okcupid's Co-Founder on Experiments, Data Science and the Myth of the 'unicorn'

Christian Rudder, co-founder and president of the IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s OkCupid, caused a stir recently when he responded to Facebook's news feed controversy with...

How the ­.s. Stumbled Into the Drone Era
From ACM Opinion

How the ­.s. Stumbled Into the Drone Era

On Sept. 7, 2000, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, a U.S. Predator drone flew over Afghanistan for the first time.

Billy Beane on the Future of Sports: A Tech-Driven Revolution
From ACM Opinion

Billy Beane on the Future of Sports: A Tech-Driven Revolution

Baseball—my passion and profession for three decades—has been at the forefront of the analytics revolution sweeping through sports.

Studying Your ­sers: Facebook's Greatest Hits
From ACM Opinion

Studying Your ­sers: Facebook's Greatest Hits

Facebook's massive psychological experiment involving almost 700,000 unwitting users has attracted plenty of attention and outrage, but it's far from the only time...

Former Nsa Chief Mike Mcconnell Says Culture, Not Tech, Is Key to Cyber Defense
From ACM Opinion

Former Nsa Chief Mike Mcconnell Says Culture, Not Tech, Is Key to Cyber Defense

John M. (Mike) McConnell says that technology alone isn't enough to secure corporate networks from pervasive and increasingly damaging cyberattacks.

Why I'm Not in a Hurry For a 'smart Home'
From ACM Opinion

Why I'm Not in a Hurry For a 'smart Home'

Here's what it's like to wake up in America's smartest home.
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