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Surveillance-Based Manipulation: How Facebook or Google Could Tilt Elections
From ACM Opinion

Surveillance-Based Manipulation: How Facebook or Google Could Tilt Elections

Someone who knows things about us has some measure of control over us, and someone who knows everything about us has a lot of control over us.

Frank Drake Thinks It's Silly to Send Messages to Et
From ACM Opinion

Frank Drake Thinks It's Silly to Send Messages to Et

Making contact with aliens: the subject of many a sci-fi story, and a variety of imagined outcomes. Though no one knows what will happen if we encounter intelligent...

The Robot That Knows When to Swipe Right
From ACM Opinion

The Robot That Knows When to Swipe Right

I have come to think of Tinder as a sort algorithm for the mind.

Astro Teller, Google's ‘captain of Moonshots,' on Making Profits at Google X
From ACM Opinion

Astro Teller, Google's ‘captain of Moonshots,' on Making Profits at Google X

Google is all over the place.

Google's Vint Cerf Warns of 'digital Dark Age'
From ACM Opinion

Google's Vint Cerf Warns of 'digital Dark Age'

Vint Cerf, a "father of the internet", says he is worried that all the images and documents we have been saving on computers will eventually be lost.

Google, Mighty Now, but Not Forever
From ACM Opinion

Google, Mighty Now, but Not Forever

Technology giants often meet their end not with a bang but a whimper, a slow, imperceptible descent into irrelevancy that may not immediately be reflected in the...

Will the Internet of Things Finally Kill Privacy?
From ACM Opinion

Will the Internet of Things Finally Kill Privacy?

In the internet of things, the Federal Trade Commission sees the possibility of flourishing new markets. But it also sees a prologue to Black Mirror: in a new report...

Will Autocomplete Make You Too Predictable?
From ACM Opinion

Will Autocomplete Make You Too Predictable?

Do you know what you really want?

A Retreat For Google Glass and a Case Study in the Perils of Making Hardware
From ACM Opinion

A Retreat For Google Glass and a Case Study in the Perils of Making Hardware

You won't have Glass to kick around anymore. At least not for a while.

A 100-Year Study of Artificial Intelligence? Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz Explains
From ACM Opinion

A 100-Year Study of Artificial Intelligence? Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz Explains

It's challenging enough to sustain any scientific study for a decade. Now Eric Horvitz, managing director of the Microsoft Research lab in Redmond, Washington,...

Why Cheap Cameras and Boring Sensors Make the Best Smart Home Stuff
From ACM Opinion

Why Cheap Cameras and Boring Sensors Make the Best Smart Home Stuff

The twin fixations of CES this year are, to no one's surprise, wearable technology and the internet of things.

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.

Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?
From Communications of the ACM

Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?

Yes, but this may not be as bad as it sounds…

Wearables
From Communications of the ACM

Wearables: Has the Age of Smartwatches Finally Arrived?

Time will tell if smartwatches will find their niche.

Search Gives ­s Superpowers
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...

The World Cracks Down on the Internet
From ACM Opinion

The World Cracks Down on the Internet

In September of last year, Chinese authorities announced an unorthodox standard to help them decide whether to punish people for posting online comments that are...

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
From ACM Opinion

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition

Information technology is revolutionizing products. Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware...

Turing's Spirit Hovers at a Restored Estate
From ACM Opinion

Turing's Spirit Hovers at a Restored Estate

When "Captain Ridley's shooting party" gathered here in late August 1938 as weekend guests at Bletchley Park, a Buckinghamshire country house, they were accompanied...

The Internet That Facebook Built
From Communications of the ACM

The Internet That Facebook Built

The on-ramp might appear free but exiting takes a toll.

Why the Surveillance State Lives On
From ACM Opinion

Why the Surveillance State Lives On

Once upon a time, Glenn Greenwald was a lonely voice in the blogging wilderness, and Edward Snowden was an isolated functionary at the heart of the American national...
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