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To Siri, With Love
From ACM Opinion

To Siri, With Love

Just how bad a mother am I? I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri.

What It Will Take For Computers to Be Conscious
From ACM Opinion

What It Will Take For Computers to Be Conscious

Is a worm conscious? How about a bumblebee? Does a computer that can play chess "feel" anything?

The Google Formula For Success
From ACM Careers

The Google Formula For Success

Can Google’s winning ways be applied to all kinds of businesses?

Cyborgs: The Truth About Human Augmentation
From ACM Opinion

Cyborgs: The Truth About Human Augmentation

At the height of summer, when London was baking in unseasonable heat, I made an ill-fated trip to the Serpentine lido in central London.

Jeff Hawkins on Why His Approach to AI Will Become the Approach to AI
From ACM TechNews

Jeff Hawkins on Why His Approach to AI Will Become the Approach to AI

In an interview, Numenta founder Jeff Hawkins says he expects his vision of brain-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) to win out over other approaches. He says...

The History of the Predator, the Drone that Changed the World
From ACM Opinion

The History of the Predator, the Drone that Changed the World

These days, the word drone is used to refer to just about any kind of remote-controlled, unmanned aircraft.

Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.i.?
From ACM Opinion

Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.i.?

When I was 12, I invented a superhero named Boy Genius, a guy my age who awakens one morning with access to 100 percent of his brain power.

You Should Be Terrified of Superintelligent Machines
From ACM Opinion

You Should Be Terrified of Superintelligent Machines

In the recent discussion over the risks of developing superintelligent machines—that is, machines with general intelligence greater than that of humans—two narratives...

Our Cyborg Future
From ACM Opinion

Our Cyborg Future

In June 2014, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Riley v. California, in which the justices unanimously ruled that police officers may not, without a...

Robot Servants Are Going to Make Your Life Easy. Then They'll Ruin It
From ACM Opinion

Robot Servants Are Going to Make Your Life Easy. Then They'll Ruin It

Jibo, the "world's first family robot," hit the media hype machine like a bomb.

The Hazards of Going on Autopilot
From ACM Opinion

The Hazards of Going on Autopilot

At 9:18 P.M. on February 12, 2009, Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, took off from Newark International Airport.

Singularity or Transhumanism: What Word Should We ­se to Discuss the Future?
From ACM Opinion

Singularity or Transhumanism: What Word Should We ­se to Discuss the Future?

Singularity. Posthuman. Techno-Optimism, Cyborgism. Humanity+. Immortalist. Machine intelligence. Biohacker. Robotopia. Life extension. Transhumanism.

Anatomy of an Air Strike: Three Intelligence Streams Working in Concert
From ACM Opinion

Anatomy of an Air Strike: Three Intelligence Streams Working in Concert

In a fast-moving war with an elusive foe like the Islamic State militants, information is as important as guns, jet fighters and bombs.

What It's Like to Fly Passenger Planes from the Ground
From ACM Opinion

What It's Like to Fly Passenger Planes from the Ground

Bob Fraser explains what it feels like to pilot a Jetstream airliner containing passengers on 800-kilometre trips from his desk at BAE Systems in Warton, U.K.

Artificial Intelligence Will Not Turn Into a Frankenstein's Monster
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence Will Not Turn Into a Frankenstein's Monster

The singularity—or, to give it its proper title, the technological singularity. It's an idea that has taken on a life of its own; more of a life, I suspect, than...

Why Is Science Fiction So Hard to Define?
From ACM Opinion

Why Is Science Fiction So Hard to Define?

Time Out, the weekly listings magazine, recently ranked the 100 best sci-fi movies of all time.

When Robots Come For Our Jobs, Will We Be Ready to Outsmart Them?
From ACM Opinion

When Robots Come For Our Jobs, Will We Be Ready to Outsmart Them?

Non-human employees are filling positions in all sorts of workplaces, and they are proving themselves to be fast, accurate, and reliable—more so than their human...

How the ­.s. Stumbled Into the Drone Era
From ACM Opinion

How the ­.s. Stumbled Into the Drone Era

On Sept. 7, 2000, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, a U.S. Predator drone flew over Afghanistan for the first time.

The Future of Robot Caregivers
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Robot Caregivers

Each time I make a house call, I stay much longer than I should.

Three Questions For Robotics Inventor Cynthia Breazeal About Social Robots
From ACM Opinion

Three Questions For Robotics Inventor Cynthia Breazeal About Social Robots

As an academic, Cynthia Breazeal pioneered research into social interaction between humans and robots, developing Kismet, a robot that used facial expressions in...
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