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
The Next Cold War Is Here, and It's All About Data
The headlines about the trade wars being touched off by President Trump's new tariffs may telegraph plenty of bombast and shots fired, but the most consequential...
From ACM Opinion
Someone Is Watching You
Isn't technology wonderful? At Purdue University, the same IT infrastructure that enables us to manage student assignments and grades, operate residential and dining...
From ACM Opinion
The Blockchain Solution to Our Deepfake Problems
Blockchain has always seemed to me like a solution looking for a problem, which isn't a criticism.
From ACM Opinion
Cambridge Analytica Controversy Must Spur Researchers to Update Data Ethics
Revelations keep emerging in the Cambridge Analytica personal-data scandal, which has captured global public attention for more than a week. But when the dust settles...
From ACM Opinion
My Cow Game Extracted Your Facebook Data
For a spell during 2010 and 2011, I was a virtual rancher of clickable cattle on Facebook.
From ACM Opinion
To Illustrate the Dangers of Cyberwarfare, the Army Is Turning to Sci-Fi
At first glance, Dark Hammer looks a lot like any other science fiction comic book: On the front cover, a drone flies over a river dividing a city with damaged...
From ACM Opinion
Enough About Cryptocurrency. Let's Talk About Virtual Cats
We spend way too much time talking about digital currencies and not nearly enough time on digital cats.
From ACM Opinion
Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Legitimate Researchers sing Facebook Data Could Be Collateral Damage
The scandal that has erupted around Cambridge Analytica's alleged harvesting of 50m Facebook profiles assembled from data provided by a UK-based academic and his...
From ACM Opinion
How Lies Spread Online
The spread of misinformation on social media is an alarming phenomenon that scientists have yet to fully understand.
From ACM Opinion
The Sublime and Scary Future of Cameras With A.I. Brains
Something strange, scary and sublime is happening to cameras, and it's going to complicate everything you knew about pictures. Cameras are getting brains.
From ACM Opinion
Retweets Are Trash
A couple of months ago, I made a small tweak to my Twitter account that has changed my experience of the platform.
From ACM News
Has Dopamine Got s Hooked on Tech?
In an unprecedented attack of candour, Sean Parker, the 38-year-old founding president of Facebook, recently admitted that the social network was founded not to...
From ACM Opinion
Apple's China Lesson: Think Different, But Not Too Different
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook will co-chair the Chinese government's showcase global business forum next month, underscoring his increasingly high profile...
From ACM Opinion
How Trump Conquered Facebook, Without Russian Ads
It's not every day that a former work colleague gets retweeted by the president of the United States.
From ACM Opinion
Russia's Troll Operation Was Not That Sophisticated
It might be nice for Democrats and #NeverTrumpers to believe that Russia's troll factory brought Donald Trump the 2016 Presidential Election.
From ACM Opinion
How Technology Is Designed to Bring Out The Worst In s
Tristan Harris has become an influential critic of how Silicon Valley designs products to addict us. In an interview, Harris talks about how the 2016 election threw...
From ACM Opinion
How to Monitor Fake News
The indictment of 13 Russians filed on Friday by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election,...
From ACM Opinion
The Father of the Internet Sees His Invention Reflected Back Through a 'Black Mirror'
In 1984, two men were thinking a lot about the Internet. One of them invented it. The other is an artist who would see its impact on society with uncanny prescience...
From ACM Opinion
How Russia Turned the Internet Against America
The indictment released Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller makes plain how prosecutors believe Russia pursued its multiyear scheme to undermine the 2016 presidential...
From ACM News