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 Man Who Helped Turn Toronto Into a High-Tech Hotbed
As an undergraduate at Cambridge University, Geoffrey Everest Hinton thought a lot about the brain. He wanted to better understand how it worked but was frustrated...
From ACM Opinion
Building Privacy Right Into Software code
When I was 15, my parents did not allow me to use AOL Instant Messenger. All of my friends used it, so I had to find a way around this rule.
From ACM Opinion
Helping or Hacking? Engineers and Ethicists Must Work Together On brain-Computer interface Technology
In the 1995 film "Batman Forever," the Riddler used 3-D television to secretly access viewers' most personal thoughts in his hunt for Batman's true identity.
From ACM Opinion
Human-Level AI Is Right Around the Corner, or Hundreds of Years Away
Artificial intelligence is progressing rapidly, and its impact on our daily lives will only increase.
From ACM Opinion
The Iphone Is 10 Years Old. Here's the Story of Its Birth.
Before anybody outside Apple was aware of it, the project that would become the iPhone was referred to internally by the code name Purple.
From ACM Opinion
Minitel, the Open Network Before the Internet
In 1991, most Americans had not yet heard of the internet.
From ACM Opinion
The Optimistic Promise of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence may be one of the technology world's current obsessions, but many people find it scary, envisioning robots taking over the world.
From ACM Opinion
Designing Antiviral Proteins via Computer Could Help Halt the Next pandemic
As Bill Gates sees it, there are three main threats to our species: nuclear war, climate change and the next global pandemic.
From ACM Opinion
Wanted: More Data, the Dirtier the Better
To distill a clear message from growing piles of unruly genomics data, researchers often turn to meta-analysis—a tried-and-true statistical procedure for combining...
From ACM Opinion
A Guide to Challenges Facing Self-Driving Car Technologists
In the minds of many in Silicon Valley and in the auto industry, it is inevitable that cars will eventually drive themselves.
From ACM Opinion
Robots Will Be More seful If They Are Made to Lack Confidence
Confidence in your abilities is usually a good thing—as long as you can recognise when it's time to ask for help.
From ACM News
Enigma: Why the Fight to Break Nazi Encryption Still Matters
It was night when three British sailors and a 16-year-old canteen assistant boarded a sinking U-boat off the coast of Egypt.
From ACM Opinion
Why Apple Is Struggling to Become an Artificial-Intelligence Powerhouse
In 2011, Apple became the first company to place artificial intelligence in the pockets of millions of consumers when it launched the voice assistant Siri on the...
From ACM Opinion
Who Will Pay For the Future If Not the Robots?
RRobots are taking over the world's workforce—and why shouldn't they?
From ACM Opinion
20 Years After Deep Blue: How AI Has Advanced Since Conquering Chess
Twenty years ago IBM's Deep Blue computer stunned the world by becoming the first machine to beat a reigning world chess champion in a six-game match.
From ACM Opinion
Military-Funded Prosthetic Technologies Benefit More Than Just Veterans
In 1905, an Ohio farmer survived a railroad accident that cost him both of his legs.
From Communications of the ACM
This Is For Everyone
Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the formative years of the world wide web, and the challenges it now faces.
From Communications of the ACM
Forced Exception Handling
You can never discount the human element in programming.
From ACM Opinion