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.
From ACM News
The Open Secret of Google Search
One of the most-used tools on the Internet is not what it used to be.
From ACM Careers
Silicon Valley's Big Three vs. Detroit's Golden-Age Big Three
Over the last 20 years, the technology industry has become the most powerful industry in the world, boasting seven of the 20 most profitable companies.
From ACM News
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
There's a battle raging over whether academic research should be free, and it’s overflowing into the dark web.
From ACM News
A Search Engine For Your Memories
People are always forgetting names. That's because, at least in part, names are arbitrary. A name, in and of itself, doesn't offer much context.
From ACM News
The Convenience-Surveillance Tradeoff
People love free stuff. That's the principle that helps explain the complicated series of privacy-related calculations that modern life increasingly requires.
From ACM News
What Does the Internet Actually Look Like?
It’s difficult to define "the cloud." Even more difficult, perhaps, is photographing it. But that's precisely what Peter Garritano set out to do with his photoThe...
From ACM News
The Secret Agents Who Stake Out the gliest Corners of the Internet
When President Obama launched his Twitter account in May, people noticed his rapid accumulation of followers, a silly back-and-forth with President Clinton, but...
From ACM News
The nderwater Internet
In 1962, during a period of technological and political transition in the undersea-cable industry, the Keawaula cable station was built on Oahu’s west shore for...
From ACM News
The Internet Mapmakers Helping Nepal
The night after the earthquake hit Nepal, people feared to sleep in their homes, worrying about powerful aftershocks toppling the few buildings left standing.
From ACM News
.s. Supreme Court: Gps Trackers Are a Form of Search and Seizure
If the government puts a GPS tracker on you, your car, or any of your personal effects, it counts as a search—and is therefore protected by the Fourth Amendment...
From ACM News
The Attention Machine
Human attention isn't stable, ever, and it costs us: lives lost when drivers space out, billions of dollars wasted on inefficient work, and mental disorders that...
From ACM Opinion
How Darpa's Augmented Reality Software Works
Six years ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) decided that they had a new dream. The agency wanted a system that would overlay digital tactical...
From ACM Opinion
Should .s. Hackers Fix Cybersecurity Holes or Exploit Them?
There's a debate going on about whether the U.S. government—specifically, the NSA and United States Cyber Command—should stockpile Internet vulnerabilities or disclose...
From ACM News
Everything We Know About How the Nsa Tracks People's Physical Location
Glenn Greenwald is back reporting about the NSA, now with Pierre Omidyar's news organization FirstLook and its introductory publication, The Intercept.
From ACM News
How Scholars Hack the World of Academic Publishing Now
If you want to understand the modern academy, it wouldn't hurt to start at "impact factor."
From ACM News
Among the Nsa's Own Tips For Securing Computers: Remove the Webcam
Seems like everything gets hacked these days. Baby monitors. White House employees' personal email. Toilets.
From ACM News
The Creepy, Long-Standing Practice of Undersea Cable Tapping
In the early 1970s, the U.S. government learned that an undersea cable ran parallel to the Kuril Islands off the eastern coast of Russia, providing a vital communications...
From ACM News
How the Boston Pd Could Examine the Videos From the Bombing
As investigators try to figure out what happened during the bombings at the Boston Marathon, they'll turn to video taken at the scene of the explosions.
From ACM News
How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means For the Future of Everything
Behind every Google Map, there is a much more complex map that's the key to your queries but hidden from your view.12