Communications of the ACM
An 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
If Killer Robots Arrive, the Terminator Will Be the Least of Our Problems
Experts warned of the threat of autonomous weaponry at last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
From ACM News
The New Way Police Are Surveilling You: Calculating Your Threat 'score'
While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect's...
From ACM News
The Big Data of Bad Driving, and How Insurers Plan to Track Your Every Turn
For years, insurance companies have used estimates of your annual mileage to determine your car insurance rates.
From ACM News
The A.i. Anxiety
The world’s spookiest philosopher is Nick Bostrom, a thin, soft-spoken Swede.
From ACM Opinion
5 Amazing and Alarming Things That May Be Done with Your Dna
"You're a male, you're 34-years-old and your 5-foot-10 1/2 inches tall." That's a prediction that Craig Venter, long a pioneer on the frontier of genomics, offered...
From ACM Careers
The Nsa School: How the Intelligence Community Gets Smarter, Secretly
Leonard Reinsfelder's wife found a note on her car as she was leaving a shopping center one day: "Have your husband give us a call. We think we could use him."
From ACM News
The Significance of an MIT Drone Weaving Around Tree Branches at 30 Mph
To get his Ph.D., MIT grad student Andy Barry packed up a car with a drone and a catapult to launch it. Then he headed west.
From ACM News
Everything You Need to Know About the Vast ndersea Network that Makes the Internet Work
Russians submarines and spy ships are "ggressively operating" near the undersea cables that are the backbone of the global Internet—worrying some U.S. intelligence...
From ACM TechNews
How Human Nature Could Foil Tesla's New Autopilot
Researchers and driving safety experts warn the new autopilot option installed in most Tesla vehicles could cause unsafe conditions.
From ACM News
With Court Order, Federal Judge Seeks to Fuel Debate About Data Encryption
A federal judge in New York is seeking to expand to the courts the hot debate over whether tech companies should be forced to find ways to unlock encrypted smartphones...
From ACM News
How Google's Self-Driving Cars May Handle the Toughest Situations
Left-hand turns are one of the tougher things drivers have to do.
From ACM News
.S. Developing Sanctions Against China Over Cyberthefts
The Obama administration is developing a package of unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals who have benefited from their government's...
From ACM TechNews
Could Hackers Take Down a City?
Researchers warn of the possibility of cyberattackers crippling a city because of urban centers' increasing reliance on technology.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Ftc Is Showing p at Hackers' Biggest Conferences
The Federal Trade Commission, the de facto federal watchdog for consumers' privacy and data security, knows it needs help.
From ACM News
Inside the Fake Town in Michigan Where Self-Driving Cars Are Being Tested
Later this year a Michigan pedestrian named Sebastian will spend his days throwing himself in the path of speeding cars.
From ACM TechNews
Watson's Next Feat? Taking on Cancer
IBM's Watson supercomputer is being trained to find personalized cancer treatments.
From ACM News
June Will End with a Rare 61-Second Minute
We'll need to wait for July just a shade longer, as the world's timekeepers have added a leap second June 30—to officially keep Earth and our precise, atomic clocks...
From ACM News
Facial Recognition Technology Is Everywhere. It May Not Be Legal.
Being anonymous in public might be a thing of the past.
From ACM TechNews
The Government's High-Tech Plan For Identifying You Based on Your Tattoos
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has reviewed the results of a challenge to develop systems to identify a person based on their tattoos.
From ACM Opinion