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 Risky Are the World Economic Forum's Top 10 Emerging Technologies For 2016?
Take an advanced technology. Add a twist of fantasy. Stir well, and watch the action unfold.
From ACM Opinion
Machines that Talk to S May Soon Sense Our Feelings, Too
After great promise in the 1960s that machines would soon think like humans, progress stalled for decades. Only in the past 10 years or so has research picked up...
From ACM Opinion
After Orlando, the Homemade Ar-15 Industry Surges
In the wake of the worst mass shooting in US history, many Americans want to ban civilians from buying the AR-15, that ultra-popular, all-American killing tool.
From ACM Opinion
Self-Driving Cars Could Flip the Auto Insurance Industry on Its Head
As the driverless car gets closer to reality, so too does the dilemma of how to insure the car and its owner.
From ACM Opinion
Bringing Precision to the AI Safety Discussion
We believe that AI technologies are likely to be overwhelmingly useful and beneficial for humanity. But part of being a responsible steward of any new technology...
From ACM Opinion
Too Cute For Their Own Good, Robots Get Self-Defense Instincts
At a shopping mall here one recent Friday, six-year-old Ruby Dowling made friends with a friendly egg-shaped robot.
From ACM Opinion
For the Golden State Warriors, Brain-Zapping Could Provide an Edge
Back in March, James Michael McAdoo, the power forward for the Golden State Warriors, tweeted out a photo of himself in the training room, sporting a pair of slick...
From ACM Opinion
Losing Control: The Dangers of Killer Robots
New technology could lead humans to relinquish control over decisions to use lethal force.
From ACM Opinion
What Happens If Gps Fails?
In only took thirteen millionths of a second to cause a whole lot of problems.
From ACM Opinion
Deep Learning Isn't a Dangerous Magic Genie. It's Just Math
Deep learning is rapidly 'eating' artificial intelligence. But let's not mistake this ascendant form of artificial intelligence for anything more than it really...
From ACM Opinion
Barefoot Networks' New Chips Will Transform the Tech Industry
Nick McKeown and his new startup, Barefoot Networks, just launched out of stealth. That's Silicon Valley-speak for trumpeting the arrival of your new startup in...
From ACM Opinion
Q&a: John Chambers
Cisco Systems designs, makes, and sells the routers, switches, and other networking equipment with which businesses connect their computers, manage data centers...
From ACM Opinion
What Are the Odds We Are Living in a Computer Simulation?
Last week, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and other cutting-edge companies, took a surprising question at the Code Conference, a technology...
From ACM Opinion
Dear Apple: Please se These Ideas to Modernize the Mac
I took a vacation last month. I traveled some. I read a lot. And I refurbished an old late 2008 MacBook Pro, one of the original aluminum unibody models.
From ACM Opinion
A Strip of Pluto
I know, that image above doesn't look like much, does it? But go ahead, click it. I dare you.
From ACM Opinion
The Real Reason America Controls Its Nukes with Ancient Floppy Disks
America's nuclear arsenal depends on a surprising relic of the 1970s that few of us may recall: the humble floppy disk.
From ACM Opinion
The Woeful Tsa Doesn't Need More Staff. It Needs This Tech
American airport security has never been something to look forward to, but in the past few weeks, it's attained new levels of misery.
From ACM Opinion
Checklist of Worst-Case Scenarios Could Help Prepare For Evil AI
Artificial intelligence—what's the worst that can happen? For Roman Yampolskiy, a computer scientist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, the sky’s the...
From ACM Opinion
Why Seti Researchers Must Change the Way They Announce First Contact
One of humanity’s most significant events will be the discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in universe. Back in the 1980s, a group of astronomers involved in...
From Communications of the ACM