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
Do We Need Brain Implants to Keep p with Robots?
Pundits have been fretting a lot lately about robots leaving humans behind, taking our jobs and possibly a lot more, as in The Matrix and Terminator films.
From ACM Opinion
Net States Rule the World; We Need to Recognize Their Power
"We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code." So declared MIT professor David D. Clark in 1992.
From ACM Opinion
Real Security Requires Strong Encryption–even If Investigators Get Blocked
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have been fighting against easy, widespread public access to encryption technologies for 25 years.
From ACM Opinion
Why Facebook and Twitter Can't Be Trusted to Police Themselves
Google, Facebook and Twitter took a beating on Wednesday testifying in front of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees about their role enabling Russia's...
From ACM Opinion
Learning to Spot Fake News: Start with a Gut Check
Which of these statements seems more trustworthy to you?
From ACM Opinion
Does Facebook Even Know How to Control Facebook?
Later today, executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter will go before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify about the ways that Russian operatives used...
From ACM Opinion
5 Star Trek Technologies That Are More Truth Than Science Fiction
It's easy to get sucked in by the wild and wacky science of Star Trek, from beaming and materializing in other places, to the intense blast of deadly light from...
From ACM Opinion
Fiction That Gets AI Right
Even the most futuristic applications of AI, from robotic servants to instant health scans, somehow already seem familiar because they have been endless fodder...
From ACM Opinion
Russia Is Pushing to Control Cyberspace. We Should All Be Worried.
Russia's cyber-meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has been accompanied by what U.S. and European experts describe as a worrisome Kremlin campaign to...
From ACM Opinion
There's No Good Decision in the Next Big Data Privacy Case
In 2013, United States agents served a warrant on Microsoft seeking the emails of a suspect in a drug case.
From Communications of the ACM
Keeping the Machinery in Computing Education
Incorporating intellectual and developmental frameworks into a Scottish school curriculum.
From Communications of the ACM
Engaging the Ethics of Data Science in Practice
Seeking more common ground between data scientists and their critics.
From Communications of the ACM
Disgorging Profits in Design Patent Cases
Does the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Apple v. Samsung case represent a quagmire?
From ACM Opinion
Driverless Cars Made Me Nervous. Then I Tried One.
On my fourth day in a semi-driverless car, I finally felt comfortable enough to let it stop itself.
From ACM Opinion
Smartphones Are Weapons of Mass Manipulation, and This Guy Is Declaring War on Them
If, like an ever-growing majority of people in the U.S., you own a smartphone, you might have the sense that apps in the age of the pocket-sized computer are designed...
From ACM Opinion
Provoking Iran Could Have nseen Cyber Consequences
On Friday, President Trump announced that he will not certify Iran's cooperation with the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama Administration.
From ACM Opinion
Would You Buy a Self-Driving Future From These Guys?
When the owner of an automated Tesla was killed in a crash last year, the carmaker's founder, Elon Musk, urged journalists to peer into the future.
From ACM Opinion
The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions
We are surrounded by hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence and robotics—hysteria about how powerful they will become, how quickly, and what they...
From ACM Opinion
What Facebook Did to American Democracy
In the media world, as in so many other realms, there is a sharp discontinuity in the timeline: before the 2016 election, and after.
From ACM Opinion