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Forget Turing—i Want to Test Computer Creativity
From ACM Opinion

Forget Turing—i Want to Test Computer Creativity

What are the elements of the Turing test?

What Are Moocs Good For?
From ACM Opinion

What Are Moocs Good For?

A few years ago, the most enthusiastic advocates of MOOCs believed that these "massive open online courses" stood poised to overturn the century-old model of higher...

Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Threat—Yet
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Threat—Yet

Does artificial intelligence threaten our species, as the cosmologist Stephen Hawking recently suggested?

Boston Researcher Cynthia Breazeal Is Ready to Bring Robots Into the Home. Are You?
From ACM Opinion

Boston Researcher Cynthia Breazeal Is Ready to Bring Robots Into the Home. Are You?

The MIT Media Lab's Personal Robots Group flanks the soaring atrium on the fourth floor of the Wiesner Building, a wall of metal panels along the southern edge...

We Might Be Able to 3-D-Print an Artificial Mind One Day
From ACM Opinion

We Might Be Able to 3-D-Print an Artificial Mind One Day

I'm an artificial-intelligence skeptic.

Why We Need a Federal Agency on Robotics
From ACM Opinion

Why We Need a Federal Agency on Robotics

The robots are no longer coming; they are here. And the law's response has been lacking. What is the best approach for integrating this transformative technology...

Father of Web Tells Russia's Putin: Internet Is Not a 'cia Project'
From ACM Opinion

Father of Web Tells Russia's Putin: Internet Is Not a 'cia Project'

The inventor of the World Wide Web said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was incorrect when he alleged the Internet was a project created by U.S...

Get Your Head Around the 13 Boldest Ideas in Science
From ACM Opinion

Get Your Head Around the 13 Boldest Ideas in Science

Science is full of mind-blowing and counterintuitive concepts.

It's Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

It's Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence

Tesla CEO Elon Musk worries it is "potentially more dangerous than nukes."

Tech's Lost Chapter: An Oral History of Boston's Rise and Fall
From ACM Opinion

Tech's Lost Chapter: An Oral History of Boston's Rise and Fall

In the popular telling, the dawn of personal computing begins in the summer of 1976, when Steve Wozniak showed off the Apple I at a meeting of the Homebrew Computer...

Ransomware Is the Future of Consumer Cybercrime
From ACM Opinion

Ransomware Is the Future of Consumer Cybercrime

It's 2020, bitter cold outside, you’re running late for work, and the Linux box that controls your car isn't going to start unless you wire $20 worth of Bitcoin...

Looking to Mars to Help Understand Changing Climates
From ACM Opinion

Looking to Mars to Help Understand Changing Climates

Where now it stands the Plain of Gold did once my river flow.

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console
From ACM Opinion

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console

Even if you're a devoted fan of video games, there's a decent chance you're not familiar with the name Ralph H. Baer.

Trends to Watch in 2015: From Algorithmic Accountability to the ­ber of X
From ACM News

Trends to Watch in 2015: From Algorithmic Accountability to the ­ber of X

Year-end technology prediction lists can be dull fodder devoted to pie-in-the-sky concepts, outlandish marketing claims or rehashes of familiar trends.

What Could Be Lost as Einstein's Papers Go Online
From ACM Opinion

What Could Be Lost as Einstein's Papers Go Online

When I heard that Albert Einstein's papers were going to be published free online, I was thrilled—at least initially.

The Last Astronauts to Fly to Hubble Talk About Their Wild Mission
From ACM Opinion

The Last Astronauts to Fly to Hubble Talk About Their Wild Mission

On a sunny afternoon in May, 2009, seven astronauts strapped themselves into the space shuttle Atlantis and rocketed toward the heavens.

Search Gives ­s Superpowers
From ACM News

Search Gives ­s Superpowers

Machine learning—an area of AI focusing on systems that "learn" from data in order to navigate future similar scenarios—is one of the ways we’ve managed to give...

The World Cracks Down on the Internet
From ACM Opinion

The World Cracks Down on the Internet

In September of last year, Chinese authorities announced an unorthodox standard to help them decide whether to punish people for posting online comments that are...

Professor Says Eu vs. Google Is Misguided and Politically Motivated
From ACM Opinion

Professor Says Eu vs. Google Is Misguided and Politically Motivated

Recent attempts by the EU Parliament to censure and control Google's activities are misguided and possibly politically motivated, according to IMD Professor Michael...

Sure, Artificial Intelligence May End Our World, But That Is Not the Main Problem
From ACM Opinion

Sure, Artificial Intelligence May End Our World, But That Is Not the Main Problem

The robots will rise, we're told.
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