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Forget Killer Robots; Bias Is the Real AI Danger
From ACM Opinion

Forget Killer Robots; Bias Is the Real AI Danger

Google's AI chief isn't fretting about super-intelligent killer robots. Instead, John Giannandrea is concerned about the danger that may be lurking inside the machine...

Are Computers Already Smarter Than Humans?
From ACM Opinion

Are Computers Already Smarter Than Humans?

Who's smarter—you, or the computer or mobile device on which you're reading this article? The answer is increasingly complex, and depends on definitions in flux...

The Coming Software Apocalypse
From ACM News

The Coming Software Apocalypse

There were six hours during the night of April 10, 2014, when the entire population of Washington State had no 911 service.

Europe Is Designing a New Particle Collider to Take On China
From ACM Careers

Europe Is Designing a New Particle Collider to Take On China

CERN, the European nuclear physics research organization, is contemplating the development of a particle accelerator three times larger than the Large Hadron Collider...

Is Beaming Down In star Trek a Death Sentence?
From ACM Opinion

Is Beaming Down In star Trek a Death Sentence?

In the 2009 movie Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Sulu plummeted down toward the planet Vulcan without a parachute. "Beam us up, beam us up!" Kirk shouted in desperation...

Facebook's Belated Awakening
From ACM Opinion

Facebook's Belated Awakening

Chastened by criticism that Facebook had turned a blind eye to Russia's manipulation of the social network to interfere in the 2016 election, the company's executives...

IoT: The Internet of Terror
From Communications of the ACM

IoT: The Internet of Terror

If it seems like the sky is falling, that's because it is.

Facebook's Ad Scandal Isn't a 'fail,' It's a Feature
From ACM Opinion

Facebook's Ad Scandal Isn't a 'fail,' It's a Feature

What does it take to advertise on Facebook to people who openly call themselves "Jew haters" and want to know "how to burn Jews"? About $10 and 15 minutes, according...

These Robots Can Merge and Split Their Brains to Form New Modular Bots
From ACM News

These Robots Can Merge and Split Their Brains to Form New Modular Bots

We cover all kinds of modular robotics around here, and when we do, we're almost always talking about one overall robotic system made up of many different modules...

Remembering Lotfi Zadeh, the Inventor of Fuzzy Logic
From ACM Careers

Remembering Lotfi Zadeh, the Inventor of Fuzzy Logic

One night in July, 1964, the logician Lotfi Zadeh found himself alone in his parents' New York apartment, his dinner plans cancelled.

Cassini Vanishes Into Saturn, Its Mission Celebrated and Mourned
From ACM Opinion

Cassini Vanishes Into Saturn, Its Mission Celebrated and Mourned

NASA&'s Cassini spacecraft, the intrepid robotic explorer of Saturn's magnificent beauty, ended a journey of 20 years on Friday like a shooting star streaking across...

Why It's a Real Mistake to Count on a Cellphone When You Go Hiking
From ACM Opinion

Why It's a Real Mistake to Count on a Cellphone When You Go Hiking

Sarah Savage was alone in the woods and didn't know which way to turn.

You Are Already Living Inside a Computer
From ACM Opinion

You Are Already Living Inside a Computer

Suddenly, everything is a computer. Phones, of course, and televisions. Also toasters and door locks, baby monitors and juicers, doorbells and gas grills. Even ...

Why Google's AI Can Write Beautiful Songs but Still Can't Tell a Joke
From ACM Opinion

Why Google's AI Can Write Beautiful Songs but Still Can't Tell a Joke

Creating noodling piano tunes and endless configurations of cat drawings with AI may not sound like an obvious project for Google, but it makes a lot of sense to...

Why the Iphone X's Face Id Is a Terrible Way to Secure Your Data
From ACM Opinion

Why the Iphone X's Face Id Is a Terrible Way to Secure Your Data

The new iPhone X puts face recognition front and centre. Why? Because it is the quickest and easiest way to unlock your phone.

What We Know About the Climate Change-Hurricane Connection
From ACM Opinion

What We Know About the Climate Change-Hurricane Connection

With Texas just beginning to recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey and the Southeastern U.S. preparing for Hurricane Irma's iminent arrival, people...

These Are Not the Robots We Were Promised
From ACM Opinion

These Are Not the Robots We Were Promised

From the moment we humans first imagined having mechanical servants at our beck and call, we've assumed they would be constructed in our own image.

Irobot Ceo Colin Angle on Data Privacy and Robots in the Home
From ACM Opinion

Irobot Ceo Colin Angle on Data Privacy and Robots in the Home

About a month ago, iRobot CEO Colin Angle mentioned something about sharing Roomba mapping data in an interview with Reuters.

Mark Sagar Made a Baby in His Lab. Now It Plays the Piano
From ACM Opinion

Mark Sagar Made a Baby in His Lab. Now It Plays the Piano

People get up to weird things in New Zealand.

The Fake-News Fallacy
From ACM Opinion

The Fake-News Fallacy

On the evening of October 30, 1938, a seventy-six-year-old millworker in Grover's Mill, New Jersey, named Bill Dock heard something terrifying on the radio.
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