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
Ad Tech Is Killing the Online Experience
There's something so wonderfully easy about reading this column in a physical newspaper.
From ACM Opinion
Pluto Is Just a Baby Step For Humankind
As it advances now beyond Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft is sending back data from its historic encounter with the dwarf planet like a long sigh of relief.
From ACM Opinion
Cli-Fi—That's Climate Fiction—Is the New Sci-Fi
Extreme weather events, changes in precipitation levels, species migration and extinction—climate change promises so many fun things. But why wait?
From ACM Opinion
The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
Summer is one of the most dangerous times of the year on U.S. streets, as many of us spend more time behind the wheel, heading out for long road trips or local...
From ACM Opinion
A Team Member's View of All the Work on Earth It Took to Get New Horizons to Pluto
Science is hard and good science is harder—it takes persistence and tons of patience.
From ACM News
Here Are Eff's Most Influential Cases from Its First 25 Years
On Friday, July 10, the Electronic Frontier Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary.
From ACM Opinion
Passing Pluto
Soon after the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto, at 7:49 A.M. on Tuesday—seventy-two seconds ahead of schedule, after a nine-and-a-half...
From ACM Opinion
How Worried Should You Be About Artificial Intelligence?
Intelligent machines come in myriad forms, so which ones pose a danger to us, and how likely are they to actually happen?
From ACM Opinion
The Reality of Cyberwar
When a series of technical glitches hit companies that ranged from United to the New York Stock Exchange this week, suspicions immediately ran to a cyber attack...
From ACM Opinion
The Social Security Number's Insecurities
In both the Anthem insurance hack and the two Office of Personnel Management hacks this year, attackers gained access to Social Security numbers, affecting 80 million...
From ACM Opinion
Google Search Chief Amit Singhal Talks Searching Apps
Amit Singhal, Google's search chief, has spent the past 15 years creating the miracle that is the Google search box.
From ACM Opinion
The Rise of the New Crypto War
James B. Comey, Jr., the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is afraid of the dark.
From ACM Opinion
Here Are the 12 Most Influential Programmers Working Today
The apps and games you use every day don't exist in a vacuum—someone, somewhere, wrote the code.
From ACM Opinion
Moxie Marlinspike: The Coder Who Encrypted Your Texts
In the past decade, Moxie Marlinspike has squatted on an abandoned island, toured the U.S. by hopping trains, he says, and earned the enmity of government officials...
From ACM Opinion
The End of Encryption? Nsa & Fbi Seek New Backdoors Against Advice from Leading Security Experts
FBI Director James Comey is set to testify against encryption before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, as the United States and Britain push for "exceptional...
From ACM Opinion
Encryption, Public Safety, and 'going Dark'
I am worried we are talking past each other with respect to "Going Dark," so let me try to frame it in a way that I hope is fair-minded and provides a basis for...
From ACM Opinion
Saving Fuel with Software
Energy efficiency isn't just a good idea from an environmental perspective; it makes business sense as well.
From ACM Opinion
The Very Best Ideas For Preventing Artificial Intelligence from Wrecking the Planet
The Boston-based Future of Life Institute, backed by a $10 million donation from Elon Musk, recently announced its list of 37 winners of research grants in the....
From ACM News
Leap Motion's Augmented-Reality Computing Looks Stupid Cool
We have a habit of filling new technologies with old ideas.
From ACM Opinion