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
How Plausible Are All Those Mission: Impossible Gadgets, Anyway?
It's been 22 years since Tom Cruise infiltrated a CIA vault suspended from a wire in the first Mission: Impossible flick.
From ACM Opinion
"I Was Devastated": Tim Berners-Lee, the Man Who Created the World Wide Web, Has Some Regrets
"For people who want to make sure the Web serves humanity, we have to concern ourselves with what people are building on top of it," Tim Berners-Lee told me one...
From ACM Opinion
How to Tell If You're Talking to a Bot
Twitter recently took drastic action as part of an effort to slow the spread of misinformation through its platform, shutting down more than two million automated...
From ACM Opinion
How to Combat China's Rise in Tech: Federal Spending, Not Tariffs
At the heart of the trade war between the United States and China lies a profound and unsettling question: Who should control the key technologies that will rule...
From ACM Opinion
Looking Through the Eyes of China's Surveillance State
They perch on poles and glare from streetlamps. Some hang barely visible in the ceiling of the subway, and others seem to stretch out on braced necks and peer into...
From ACM Opinion
Trump-Putin Summit Mystery: What About Snowden?
As President Donald Trump prepares to meet Vladimir Putin on Monday, lawmakers from both parties want him to demand that the Russian president hand over 12 hackers...
From ACM Opinion
Alexa: Don't Let My 2-Year-Old Talk to You That Way
Parents, your child may have a new secret friend: your smart speaker.
From ACM Opinion
We Have Reached Peak Screen. Now Revolution Is in the Air.
Smartphones were once the best thing to happen to the tech industry—and for a while, it seemed, to all of us, too.
From ACM Opinion
A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora's Box for DIY Guns
Five years ago, 25-year-old radical libertarian Cody Wilson stood on a remote central Texas gun range and pulled the trigger on the world's first fully 3-D-printed...
From ACM Opinion
What Was on a SB Fan Given at the Trump-Kim Summit? Security Experts Say Nothing, but Don't Plug It In.
When journalists arrived in Singapore for the historic summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month, security experts were alarmed...
From ACM Opinion
Article 13: Europe's Hotly Debated Revamp of Copyright Law, Explained
First they came for the privacy violations, then they came for the memes.
From ACM Opinion
Why Made in China 2025 Will Succeed, Despite Trump
China will succeed in building a powerful technology industry that will rival the United States, even if President Trump starts a trade war to stop it.
From ACM Opinion
Why Are There So Many Robocalls? Here's What You Can Do About Them
Remember when phone calls meant people wanted to talk to you about something other than lowering your interest rates?
From ACM Opinion
Could Quantum Computing Be the End of Free Will?
Faster, more powerful computing has the potential to revolutionize fields from drug delivery to freight transportation.
From ACM Opinion
Whoa! Meet the Future Phones that Fold p, Have 9 Cameras and Charge Over Thin Air.
Your next smartphone might just throw you a curve.
From ACM Opinion
Disrupting Pro-ISIS Online 'Ecosystems' Could Help Thwart Real-World Terrorism
Supporters of the Islamic State, or ISIS, around the world gather online, becoming members of virtual communities in much the same way any of us might join online...
From ACM Opinion
Video Refereeing a Boon and a Bust at World Cup
As must have been the case with the first glimmers of electric lights in the 19th century, video assistant referees benefited from an initial "Wow! The technology...
From ACM Opinion
This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins
The robot arm is performing a peculiar kind of Sisyphean task.
From ACM Opinion
The Supreme Court Just Struck a Blow Against Mass Surveillance
The Supreme Court decided Friday that cell-site location information is protected by the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures...
From ACM Opinion