Communications of the ACM
Multimodal AI Connects the Digital Dots
By knitting together multiple components and data streams, multimodal AI offers the promise of smarter, more human-like systems… From ACM NewsAn edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
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Mobile-Phone Health Apps Deliver Data Bounty
Last summer, physician Yvonne Chan wondered how the wildfires raging through Washington state were affecting people with asthma—for whom smoke and heat can trigger...
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What Google's Winning Go Algorithm Will Do Next
Following the defeat of one of its finest human players, the ancient game of Go has joined the growing list of tasks at which computers perform better than humans...
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Meet the Soft, Cuddly Robots of the Future
In 2007, Cecilia Laschi asked her father to catch a live octopus for her seaside lab in Livorno, Italy.
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Babylonian Astronomers sed Geometry to Track Jupiter
A reanalysis of markings on Babylonian tablets has revealed that astronomers working between the fourth and first centuries bc used geometry to calculate the motions...
From ACM News
Google AI Algorithm Masters Ancient Game of Go
A computer has beaten a human professional for the first time at Go—an ancient board game that has long been viewed as one of the greatest challenges for artificial...
From ACM Opinion
Go Players React to Computer Defeat
For decades, the ancient game of Go has stood out as the one board game that computers couldn't crack.
From ACM News
Artificial-Intelligence Institute Launches Free Science Search Engine
With Google Scholar, PubMed, and other free academic databases at their fingertips, scientists may feel they have plenty of resources to trawl through the ever-growing...
From ACM News
Brain Scans Pinpoint Individuals from a Crowd
Our brains are wired in such distinctive ways that an individual can be identified on the basis of brain-scan images alone, neuroscientists report.
From ACM News
Machine Ethics: The Robot's Dilemma
In his 1942 short story 'Runaround', science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov introduced the Three Laws of Robotics—engineering safeguards and built-in ethical principles...
From ACM Careers
U.s. 'export Rules' Threaten Research
The U.S. government is considering policy changes that could dramatically affect how researchers handle equipment and information that have national-security implications...
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The Pentagon's Gamble on Brain Implants, Bionic Limbs and Combat Exoskeletons
When Geoffrey Ling talks about the future of technology, his ideas go flying around the room like a whirlwind.
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Military Technology: Laser Weapons Get Real
Silently, the drone aircraft glides above the arid terrain of New Mexico—until it suddenly pivots out of control and plummets to the ground.
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Rule Rewrite Aims to Clean Up Scientific Software
The finding seemed counterintuitive: warming in North America was driving plant species to lower elevations—not towards higher, cooler climes, as ecologists had...
From ACM News
The Printed Organs Coming to a Body Near You
The advent of three-dimensional (3D) printing has generated a swell of interest in artificial organs meant to replace, or even enhance, human machinery.
From ACM Careers
Mistrust and Meddling nsettles .s. Science Agency
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has had a tough couple of years.
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Robo-Rescuers Battle It Out in Disaster Challenge
When the humanoid robot SAFFiR gets a shove, it reflexively moves to maintain its balance. SAFFiR can also walk over uneven terrain, turn its head to scan its surroundings...
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Game-Playing Software Holds Lessons For Neuroscience
DeepMind, the Google-owned artificial-intelligence company, has revealed how it created a single computer algorithm that can learn how to play 49 different arcade...
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Physics in Finance: Trading at the Speed of Light
Financial traders are in a race to make transactions ever faster.
From ACM News
Autonomous Vehicles: No Drivers Required
This summer, people will cruise through the streets of Greenwich, U.K., in electric shuttles with no one's hands on the steering wheel—or any steering wheel at...
From ACM News