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
Why Zoom Is Terrible
There's a reason video apps make you feel awkward and unfulfilled.
From ACM Opinion
Will Online Education Widen Asia's Digital Divide?
Some students may be at a disadvantage as e-learning relies heavily on home environments, experts say.
From ACM Opinion
Online Learning Should Return to a Supporting Role
Winner-take-all economics and cost-cutting may make many in-person lectures obsolete, but the best education continues to be intensive, expensive, and done in person...
From ACM Opinion
Privacy Cannot Be a Casualty of the Coronavirus
Many Americans now rely on digital tools to work remotely and stay connected. They shouldn't have to sacrifice their privacy to use them.
From ACM Opinion
How to (Carefully) Use Tech to Contain the Coronavirus
The United States can learn from other countries to track the pandemic while still protecting privacy.
From ACM Opinion
Eric Schmidt: I Used to Run Google. Silicon Valley Could Lose to China.
We can't win the technology wars without the federal government's help.
From ACM Opinion
We're Banning Facial Recognition. We're Missing the Point.
The whole point of modern surveillance is to treat people differently, and facial recognition technologies are only a small part of that.
From ACM Opinion
I Invented the World Wide Web. Here’s How We Can Fix It.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee wanted the Web to serve humanity. He says it's not too late to live up to that promise.
From ACM Opinion
Why Cybersecurity Should Be India's Foremost Priority
Attacks on embedded systems and IoT have increased in India.
From ACM Opinion
We Shouldn't be Scared by 'Superintelligent A.I.'
Bostrom, Russell, and other writers argue that even if the probability is small that superintelligent machines will emerge in the foreseeable future, we should...
From ACM Opinion
Why Google's Quantum Supremacy Milestone Matters
Quantum computing is the first computing paradigm since Turing expected to change the fundamental scaling behavior of algorithms, making certain tasks feasible...
From ACM Opinion
50 Years Ago, I Helped Invent the Internet. How Did It Go So Wrong?
We did not anticipate that the dark side of the Internet would emerge with such ferocity. Or that we would feel an urgent need to fix it.
From ACM Opinion
How to Build Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust
Computer systems need to understand time, space and causality. Right now they don't.
From ACM Opinion
A Journey, If You Dare, Into the Minds of Silicon Valley Programmers
Code seems cold and objective, the raw logic of the internet, and Silicon Valley likes it that way.
From ACM Opinion
Limiting Your Digital Footprints in a Surveillance State
What are your most important tech tools for reporting in Shanghai, especially with a government known for surveillance?
From ACM Opinion
Don't Fight the Robots. Tax Them.
When Bill Gates floated the idea of imposing a tax on robots a couple of years ago, Lawrence Summers, a former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, called...
From ACM Opinion
An Intrepid Explorer of Mars Falls Silent
Opportunity, formally known as Mars Exploration Rover B but as Oppy to its many friends and admirers, was pronounced dead on Wednesday after a final round of beamed...
From ACM Opinion
The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know
A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills...
From ACM Opinion
How Silicon Valley Puts the 'Con' in Consent
The average person would have to spend 76 working days reading all of the digital privacy policies they agree to in the span of a year. Reading Amazon's terms and...
From ACM Opinion