Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2023
From ACM News
AI Passes U.S. Medical Licensing Exam
Two papers show that large language models, including ChatGPT, can pass the USMLE.
From ACM TechNews
Stacking Turns Organic Transistors Up
Scientists in the U.S. and China have adopted a vertical framework to produce high-performance organic electrochemical transistors.
From ACM TechNews
Tennessee High School Students Build Robotic Hand for Classmate
Students at Henderson high school in Tennessee constructed a robotic hand for classmate Sergio Peralta, whose right hand was not fully formed.
From ACM TechNews
ACM TechBrief: Policies Needed for Safer Algorithmic Systems
A TechBrief released by ACM's global Technology Policy Council warns the spread of algorithmic systems carries with it unaddressed risks.
From ACM News
Department of Justice Takes Down Hive, a Major Ransomware Group
The DOJ said it stopped victims, including hospitals, schools and infrastructure operators worldwide, from paying $130 million in ransom.
From ACM News
Startup's Plans for Robot Lawyer Nixed After CEO Threatened With Jail
"...it seems likely they will put me in jail for 6 months if I follow through with bringing a robot lawyer into a physical courtroom."
From ACM News
RSA's Demise from Quantum Attacks is Very Much Exaggerated, Expert Says
Simson Garfinkel says the focus on quantum attacks may distract us from more immediate threats.
From ACM TechNews
Learning to Lie: AI Tools Adept at Creating Disinformation
Researchers at NewsGuard, which monitors and studies online misinformation, found that OpenAI's online chatbot ChatGPT can be used to generate propaganda and misinformation.
From ACM TechNews
An Unprecedented Look at Colorectal Cancer
Researchers at Harvard Medical School created large-scale two-dimensional and three-dimensional spatial maps of colorectal cancer that layer molecular information on top of histological features.
From ACM TechNews
Assigning Workplaces in Synthetic Populations
Researchers have developed a technique for assigning workplaces to individuals in synthetic populations.
From ACM TechNews
Color Images from the Shadow of a Sample
Researchers at Göttingen University have developed a new method for X-ray color imaging.
From ACM News
Leaked Police Files Offer Clues on How Cops Use Data Firms
Data allegedly from ODIN Intelligence illuminates its software and customers. The company says it's working with law enforcement to investigate.
From ACM News
U.S. Intelligence Wants to Use Psychology to Avert Cyberattacks
IARPA scientists are taking up the nascent field of cyber psychology to predict and counter hacker behavior.
From ACM News
Optical AI Could Feed Voracious Data Needs
To power the 3D-printed, multiplexing system, just shine light on it.
From ACM News
What Caused Wednesday Morning's Microsoft Outage?
Service was impacted in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, however, China was unaffected, per CNN.
From ACM News
This Startup Is Using AI to Unearth New Smells
Google Research spinout Osmo wants to find substitutes for hard-to-source aromas. The tech could inspire new perfumes—and help combat mosquito-borne diseases.
From ACM TechNews
Muscle-Powered Robots Have Freedom of Movement
Researchers collaborated on the construction of remote-controlled electronic biological robots powered by organic muscles.
From ACM TechNews
Art, AI Collide in Landmark Legal Dispute
Human artists and artificial intelligence companies are disputing generative AI-intellectual property in a landmark legal case.
From ACM TechNews
LG, Whirlpool Target Customers Disconnected from 'Smart' Appliances
Appliance manufacturers LG Electronics and Whirlpool are trying to entice customers whose "smart" appliances are not connected to the Internet to embrace the technology.
From ACM News
Justice Department Sues Google for Monopolizing Digital Advertising Technologies
Justice Department accuses Google of subverting competition in Internet advertising technologies through serial acquisitions and anticompetitive auction manipulation.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Create Portal of Weird, Wonderful Fish Sounds
Researchers developed an online portal of fish sound information and a catalogue of recordings, featuring data on 989 fish species found to produce active sounds.
From ACM TechNews
Viral ChatGPT Spurs Concerns About Propaganda, Hacking Risks
Researchers at Georgetown University, OpenAI, and the Stanford Internet Observatory issued a report warning about the potential misuse of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot by propagandists.
From ACM TechNews
Hundreds of MSI Motherboards Have a Serious Security Flaw
Polish security researcher Dawid Potocki discovered a vulnerability in MSI's motherboards that occurs when the Secure Boot default settings for "Image Execution Policy" are changed to "Always Execute."
From ACM News
NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Candidate Cracked
It took researchers in Belgium just an hour to crack the SIKE cryptographic algorithm.
From ACM News
Microsoft Invests $10 Billion in ChatGPT Maker OpenAI
The deal will give a boost to Microsoft's Azure cloud, while providing OpenAI with additional specially designed supercomputers to run its complex AI models and fuel its research.
From ACM News
Teaching In The Age Of AI Means Getting Creative
ChatGPT and similar AI systems are being used in realms beyond education, but classrooms seem to be where fears about the bot's misuse — and ideas to adapt alongside evolving technology — are playing out first.
From ACM News
Swedish Quantum Computer to be Made Available to Industry
A Swedish quantum computer is to become more widely available.
From ACM News
Meta Board Trashes Facebook's 'Convoluted and Poorly Defined' Female Nipple Rule
Facebook's rules, the board acknowledged, are "extensive and confusing" and "often convoluted and poorly defined," requiring bizarre, subjective content moderation assessments.
From ACM News
CNET Secretly Used AI on Articles That Didn't Disclose That Fact, Staff Say
"They use AI to rewrite the intros every two weeks or so because Google likes updated content. Eventually it gets so mangled that about every four months a real editor has to look at it and rewrite it."
From ACM News
The AI Magic Show
Explanations about how deep learning and large language models actually work often emphasized incomprehensibility, or a model's explainability or interpretability, or lack thereof