Communications of the ACM
What Would the Chatbot Say?
Seeking to explain the unanticipated abilities of large language models.
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 TechNews
Why a Hacker Is Giving Away a Special Code That Turns Cars Into Self-Driving Machines
The founder of startup Comma.ai has released a free software kit in an effort to accelerate autonomous vehicle technology without running afoul of regulators.
From ACM News
Erich Bloch, IBM Pioneer Who Later Led National Science Foundation, Dies at 91
Bloch was the first U.S. National Science Foundation director to come from a business rather than academic background, and the first without a doctoral degree. ...
From ACM News
China's Plan to Organize Its Society Relies on 'big Data' to Rate Everyone
Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you...
From ACM Opinion
Nate Silver Blew It When He Missed Trump. Now He Really Needs to Get It Right.
Nate Silver is on the downtown 1 train. Possibly because he looks like a (modestly) hip math teacher, and hardly looks up from his phone, he goes unrecognized until...
From ACM News
The FCC Just Passed Sweeping New Rules to Protect Your Online Privacy
Federal officials delivered a landmark ruling in favor of online privacy Thursday, limiting how Internet providers use and sell customer data, while asserting that...
From ACM TechNews
Will Driverless Cars Really Save Millions of Lives? Lack of Data Makes It Hard to Know
The lack of data on how driverless automobiles' performance compares with human drivers makes it difficult to determine the safety benefits of autonomous vehicles...
From ACM TechNews
In a Medical First, Brain Implant Allows Paralyzed Man to Feel Again
For the first time, a paralyzed man has regained his sense of touch via a thought-controlled robotic arm thanks to experiments conducted by the University of Pittsburgh...
From ACM News
China Has Now Eclipsed US in AI Research
Humanity may still be years if not decades away from producing sentient artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
Why Apple Can Be Forced to Turn Logs of Your Imessage Contacts Over to Police
When a user sends someone a message through Apple's iMessage feature, Apple encrypts that message between Apple devices so that only the sender and recipient can...
From ACM TechNews
Contract Expiration to End .s. Authority Over Internet Ip Addresses
Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016, officially marked the end of the U.S. government's control over the Internet's most basic functions with the expiration of its contract...
From ACM TechNews
Federal Officials Plan Aggressive Approach to Driverless Cars
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Monday announced plans to aggressively influence the launch of driverless car technology.
From ACM News
Confused About Those Emergency Cellphone Alerts? Here's How They Work.
Many New York-area commuters on Monday were interrupted by this alert on their cellphones: "WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9...
From ACM TechNews
How America's 911 Emergency Response System Can Be Hacked
Researchers at Israel's Ben Gurion University have created a method for disabling the U.S. 911 emergency system with telephony denial-of-service attacks.
From ACM News
The Science of Smartphone Batteries and How to Keep Them Charged
Whenever a new iPhone gets announced, there's one feature that every Apple lover is hoping for: improved battery life.
From ACM News
The Bizarre World of Bitcoin 'mining' Finds a New Home in Tibet
Inside a metal shed in the Tibetan highlands of western China, thousands of microprocessors flank narrow corridors, generating a constant hum and stifling waves...
From ACM TechNews
Virginia Tech Initiative With Qualcomm to Expose Students to STEM
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and chip manufacturer Qualcomm have are opening a new Thinkabit lab at the university's Northern Virginia campus...
From ACM TechNews
Who Would Win the Coding Olympics?
U.S. programmers landed in 28th place in a HackerRank compilation of the results of 1.4 million coding challenges by approximately 300,000 developers.
From ACM Opinion
Here's How Russian Hackers Could Actually Tip an American Election
Reports this week of Russian intrusions into U.S. election systems have startled many voters, but computer experts are not surprised.
From ACM TechNews
Self-Driving Cars Reach a Fork in the Road, and Automakers Take Different Routes
Automakers are taking divergent approaches to the development and deployment of driverless vehicles.
From ACM News