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
Eric Schmidt on How to Build a Better Web
Turning Point: The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria declares a war on Twitter.
From ACM Opinion
Dark Clouds Over the Internet
The Internet is routinely described as borderless, and that is often how it feels.
From ACM Opinion
Stopping Whatsapp Won't Stop Terrorists
Is the ability to send encrypted messages making it hard to stop terrorists?
From ACM Opinion
From Army of One to Band of Tweeters
It was the end of a long combat patrol near a district called Adhamiyah, in northwest Baghdad, in the fall of 2008.
From ACM Opinion
These 5 Facts Explain the Rise of the Drone
The October 15 release of the so-called Drone Papers, leaked reports that appear to document the U.S. use of drone aircraft for military purposes, has given the...
From ACM Opinion
European Ruling Is Merely a Symbolic Victory For Privacy
A decision on Tuesday by the European Union’s highest court, striking down an agreement between the E.U. and the United States that allows companies like Facebook...
From ACM Opinion
Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
College students tell me they know how to look someone in the eye and type on their phones at the same time, their split attention undetected.
From ACM Opinion
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.i.
The distinction between man and machine is under siege.
From ACM Opinion
Big Tech Has Become Way Too Powerful
Conservatives and liberals interminably debate the merits of "the free market" versus "the government."
From ACM Careers
The pside of a Downturn in Silicon Valley
In October 2008, in the early days of the last economic collapse, Sequoia Capital invited founders of technology companies to a frank meeting outlining the new...
From ACM Opinion
Robot Weapons: What's the Harm?
Last month over a thousand scientists and tech-world luminaries, including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak, released an open letter calling for a global...
From ACM TechNews
Algorithms and Bias: Q and A With Cynthia Dwork
In an interview, Microsoft Research scientist Cynthia Dwork describes how algorithms can learn to discriminate because they are programmed by coders who incorporate...
From ACM Opinion
When Phone Encryption Blocks Justice
In June, a father of six was shot dead on a Monday afternoon in Evanston, Ill., a suburb 10 miles north of Chicago.
From ACM Opinion
With Google as Alphabet, a Bid to Dream Big Beyond Search
Shortly after its founding, Google posted a document on its site called "Ten things we know to be true," an effort to distill its unusual corporate culture into...
From ACM Opinion
'right to Be Forgotten' Online Is Poised to Spread
More than a year ago, in a decision that stunned many American Internet companies, Europe's highest court ruled that search engines were required to grant an unusual...
From ACM Opinion
The Web-Connected Car Is Cool, ntil Hackers Cut Your Brakes
When the history of the connected car is written, this week may go down as a pivotal moment for consumers worried about security.
From ACM Opinion
We Are Data: The Future of Machine Intelligence
I look at apps like Grindr and Tinder and see how they’ve rewritten sex culture—by creating a sexual landscape filled with vast amounts of incredibly graphic site...
From ACM Opinion
Google Search Chief Amit Singhal Talks Searching Apps
Amit Singhal, Google's search chief, has spent the past 15 years creating the miracle that is the Google search box.
From ACM Opinion
What Apple's Tim Cook Overlooked in His Defense of Privacy
Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, delivered a speech last week that raised some eyebrows in the technology industry.
From ACM Opinion