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 Russians Will Be Back. Will We Be Ready?
In recent days, our nation's response to the continued threat of foreign meddling in American elections has taken something of a surprising turn.
From ACM Opinion
Please Prove You're Not a Robot
When science fiction writers first imagined robot invasions, the idea was that bots would become smart and powerful enough to take over the world by force, whether...
From ACM Opinion
Information Technology: A Digital Genius at Play
The US mathematician and electrical engineer Claude Shannon, whose life spanned the tumultuous, technologically explosive twentieth century, is often called the...
From ACM Opinion
Why Haven't Reporters Mass-Adopted Secure Tools For Communicating With Sources?
In the months since Donald Trump took office, Washington has been leaking like a sieve.
From ACM Opinion
Why Robots Won't Steal All Our Jobs
Don't worry. The robots won't destroy all our jobs. History suggests just the opposite—that new technologies inspire new jobs.
From ACM Opinion
Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
As recent high school graduates prepare for their migration to college in the fall, one item is sure to top most students' shopping wish lists: a laptop computer...
From ACM Opinion
Teddy Roosevelt Wouldn't nderstand the E.u.'s Antitrust Fine Against Google
Back in 1980, Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago economist, starred in a public-television series called "Free to Choose," in which he presented his free...
From ACM Opinion
Asimov's Laws Won't Stop Robots Harming Humans So We've Developed a Better solution
How do you stop a robot from hurting people?
From ACM Opinion
Donald Trump's 'impenetrable Cybersecurity' Is Pure Fantasy
Nothing connected to the internet is safe from hackers. And I mean nothing.
From ACM Opinion
Could a Robot Be President?
President Donald Trump reportedly spends his nights alone in the White House, watching TV news and yelling at the screen.
From ACM Opinion
In Reporting on North Korea, Tech Helps Break Through Secrecy
How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Choe Sang-Hun, The Times's Korea correspondent who is based in Seoul...
From ACM Opinion
The President of Search Giant Baidu Has Global Plans
Google and Facebook are household names around the world. Baidu? Not yet. Ya-Qin Zhang, president of China's leading search business, says Chinese companies can...
From ACM Opinion
AI Will Make Forging Anything Entirely Too Easy
"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," said an exasperated James Comey in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8. Comey's desire reflects a...
From ACM Opinion
A Reality Check For Ibm's AI Ambitions
Paul Tang was with his wife in the hospital just after her knee replacement surgery, a procedure performed on about 700,000 people in the U.S. every year.
From ACM Opinion
Image Doctoring Must Be Halted
Seven years ago, a cover of The Economist showed Barack Obama, head down on a Louisiana beach in front of an oil rig—the picture of lonely despair.
From ACM Opinion
This Iphone Designer Says No More Screens
In June 2016, Tony Fadell, the chief executive officer of Nest and one of the most important hardware executives of his generation, announced that he was leaving...
From ACM Opinion
China's Tech Moguls Warn of Ai's Troubling Trajectory
China has seen incredible economic and social changes over the past few decades. But could the impact of artificial intelligence take the country by surprise?
From ACM Opinion
For Google, Everything Is a Popularity Contest
When I saw that Google had introduced a "Classic Papers" section of Google Scholar, its search tool for academic journals, I couldn't help but stroke my chin professorially...
From ACM Opinion
AI Could Kickstart a New Global Arms Race; We Need Better Ways to Govern It Before It's Too Late
There is a lot of money to be made from Artificial Intelligence.
From ACM Opinion