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
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
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
Here's Your Chance to Decode President Lincoln's Secret Messages
On April 12, 1865—three days after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox and two days before President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated—the president sent...
From ACM Opinion
Basic Income: A Sellout of the American Dream
Matt Krisiloff is in a small, glass-walled conference room off the lobby of Y Combinator’s office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, shouting distance...
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
It'll Be Very Hard For Terrorism Victim's Family to Win Lawsuit Against Twitter
Legal experts say that it will be an uphill battle for the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit this week against Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
From ACM Opinion
The Physicist Who Studies Isis Communities Online
Neil Johnson, a physicist at the University of Miami in Florida, studies patterns that emerge in complex systems.
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
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
A Russian Cybersleuth Battles the 'dark Ages' of the Internet
A sense of menace stirs right off the elevator on the fifth floor of Kaspersky Lab's Moscow headquarters, where a small television screen displays cyberthreatsa...
From ACM Opinion
Will the Constitution Protect Your Next Smartphone?
More than a decade ago, the keynote speaker at a major annual cybersecurity conference strode into the spotlight and predicted the death of the password.
From ACM Opinion
Jobs Threatened By Machines: A Once 'stupid' Concern Gains Respect
They replaced horses, didn't they? That's how the late, great economist Wassily Leontief responded 35 years ago to those who argued technology would never really...
From ACM Opinion
How New Technology Is Illuminating a Classic Ethical Dilemma
On a pleaant Friday afternoon in April, the grassy quadrangle at the center of the Carnegie Mellon University campus is buzzing with activity.
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
Kevin Kelly on Soft Singularity and Inevitable Tech Advances
Kevin Kelly knows technology can't be stopped.
From ACM Opinion