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I Love You, Killer Robots
From ACM Opinion

I Love You, Killer Robots

It was way back in May 2010 that I first spotted the flying drones that will take over the world. They were in a video that Daniel Mellinger, one of the robots'...

From ACM Opinion

Why Driverless Cars Will Increase Tensions in Cities and Suburbs Alike

Driverless cars sound less and less like science fiction with each passing month, and that's prompted widespread discussion about how they might change society.

How Does Siri Knockoff Evi Compare to the Iphone's Original Digital Assistant?
From ACM Opinion

How Does Siri Knockoff Evi Compare to the Iphone's Original Digital Assistant?

Evi, the Siri knockoff that got attention last week for looking too much like Siri, has beendownloaded over 200,000 times, leading us to believe that this one might...

IBM Says Future Computers Will Be Constant Learners
From ACM TechNews

IBM Says Future Computers Will Be Constant Learners

Tomorrow's computers will constantly improve their understanding of the data they work with, which will help them provide users with more appropriate information...

Rudy Rucker: 'all These Years, and I'm Still Looking For the Big Aha'
From ACM Opinion

Rudy Rucker: 'all These Years, and I'm Still Looking For the Big Aha'

"When I see an old movie, like from the '40s or '50s or '60s, the people look so calm. They don't have smart phones, they're not looking at computer screens, they're...

Five Reasons The Robo-Car Haters Are Wrong
From ACM Opinion

Five Reasons The Robo-Car Haters Are Wrong

The self-driving cars we’ve been promised since the dawn of the auto age are here.

From ACM Opinion

Welcome to the Desktop Degree

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, in 1995 to be precise, a scholar named Eli Noam published an article in the prestigious journal Science under the titleElectronics...

From ACM Opinion

Rethinking the Soul As the 'net Becomes More Lifelike

Does the Internet have a soul?

From ACM Opinion

Time For Robots to Get Real

From robotic slug-killers to dancing humanoids, there's a lot of media buzz around robots.

From ACM News

Sebastian Thrun Resigns from Stanford to Launch ­dacity

Professor Sebastian Thrun has given up his Stanford position to start Udacity—an online educational venture. Udacity's first two free courses are Building a Search...

From ACM Opinion

It's Time to Start 3d Scanning the World

When Microsoft was developing its Kinect 3D sensor, a critical task was to calibrate its algorithms to rapidly and accurately recognize parts of the human body,...

How Siri Makes Computers (and Coders) More Human
From ACM TechNews

How Siri Makes Computers (and Coders) More Human

Siri, a program in the latest Apple iPhone that can carry out a wide spectrum of vocal commands without requiring training or special syntax from the user, stands...

iPhone Celebrates 5th Birthday
From ACM Opinion

iPhone Celebrates 5th Birthday

Gadget fans may be focused on the CES trade show this week, but there’s something else notable going on today: It’s the iPhone’s fifth birthday.

Building the Team That Built Watson
From ACM Opinion

Building the Team That Built Watson

The assignment was one of the biggest challenges in the field of artificial intelligence: build a computer smart enough to beat grand champions at the game of...

An Interview with Stephen A. Cook
From Communications of the ACM

An Interview with Stephen A. Cook

Stephen A. Cook, winner of the 1982 A.M. Turing Award, reflects on his career.

From ACM Opinion

The Future of Moral Machines

A robot walks into a bar and says, "I’ll have a screwdriver." A bad joke, indeed. But even less funny if the robot says "Give me what’s in your cash register."...

Space Elevators and Smart Machines: Life in the Year 2100
From ACM Opinion

Space Elevators and Smart Machines: Life in the Year 2100

In my book, Physics of the Future, I make scores of predictions for this century, based on interviews with over 300 of the world's top scientists, who are inventing...

Voice Recognition: Has It Come of Age?
From ACM Opinion

Voice Recognition: Has It Come of Age?

The man sits down in front of the computer and says, affably: "Computer!"

Doctoral Program Rankings For U.S. Computing Programs
From Communications of the ACM

Doctoral Program Rankings For U.S. Computing Programs: The National Research Council Strikes Out

A proposal for improving doctoral program ranking strategy.

The Grounding Practice
From Communications of the ACM

The Grounding Practice

The skill of making and recognizing grounded claims is essential for professional practice. Getting objective data to support your conclusions is not enough.
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