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
To Win the Next War, the Pentagon Needs Nerds
Data scientists, coders, and other techies could prove decisive in future conflicts—if Uncle Sam can recruit them.
From ACM Opinion
The Turing Test Is Bad for Business
Technology should focus on the complementarity game, not the imitation game
From ACM Opinion
Now That Machines Can Learn, Can They Unlearn?
Researchers are testing whether they can remove sensitive data without retraining AI systems from scratch
From ACM Opinion
The U.S. Needs to Get Back in the Business of Making Chips
Pandemic-induced supply disruptions and competition from China pressuring U.S. companies to manufacture semiconductors at home.
From ACM Opinion
The Future of American Industry Depends on Open Source Tech
Open source has two important, and somewhat counterintuitive, advantages: speed and security.
From ACM Opinion
The Cyberwar Needs More Women on the Front Lines
Educating girls to be the cybersecurity leaders of tomorrow will help combat criminals who prey on women and children.
From ACM Opinion
Defeated Chess Champ Garry Kasparov Has Made Peace With AI
Twenty-three years after his loss to IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer, Garry Kasparov says people need to work with machines.
From ACM Opinion
Wouldn't It Be Great If People Could Vote on the Blockchain?
Mobile voting could increase voter participation, but it's plagued by security issues in search of a solution.
From ACM Opinion
The Robocall Crisis Will Never Be Totally Fixed
Years into the robocalling frenzy, your phone probably still rings off the hook with "important information about your account," updates from the "Chinese embassy...
From ACM Opinion
Huawei's Problem Isn't Chinese Backdoors. It's Buggy Software
A report on Thursday from a British government oversight group found that Chinese telecom-equipment maker Huawei has basic but deeply problematic flaws in its product...
From ACM Opinion
The ncanny Valley Nobody's Talking About: Eerie Robot Voices
Call it the Great Convergence of Creepiness. The first bit, the uncanny valley, we're all familiar with by now: If a humanoid robot looks super realistic, but not...
From ACM Opinion
Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question
When Norbert Wiener, the father ofcybernetics, wrote his book The Human Use of Human Beings in 1950, vacuum tubes were still the primary electronic building blocks...
From ACM Opinion
China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market, and the S Has No Plan
You may have heard that China has cornered much of the world's supply of strategic metals and minerals crucial for new technology, including lithium, rare earths...
From ACM Opinion
What Trump's Executive Order on AI Is Missing
President Trump signed an executive order on February 11 meant to shore up our competitive position in the international race for AI supremacy, but it is short...
From ACM Opinion
Trump's Plan to Keep America First in AI
The US leads the world in artificial intelligence technology. Decades of federal research funding, industrial and academic research, and streams of foreign talent...
From ACM Opinion
There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology
In his 2008 white paper that first proposed bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto concluded with: "We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without...
From ACM Opinion
Tor Is Easier Than Ever. Time to Give It a Try
You probably know about the digital anonymity service Tor, but for whatever reason you may not actually use it.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Fear the Robot Overlords; Embrace Them as Coworkers
In a chilly warehouse just outside of Boston, the brute toils away. It's 600 pounds of orange and black metal and whirring motors, a massive robotic arm that picks...
From ACM Opinion
What the California Wildfires Can Teach s About Data Sharing
When a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant failed, leaking radioactive material...
From ACM Opinion