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 News
'A Certain Danger Lurks There': How the Inventor of the First Chatbot Turned Against AI
Computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum was there at the dawn of artificial intelligence – but he was also adamant that we must never confuse computers with humans...
From ACM TechNews
Rentokil Pilots Facial Recognition System as Way to Exterminate Rats
U.K. pest control services provider Rentokil is testing facial recognition software as a tool for rat extermination.
From ACM TechNews
New Zealand VR App Helps Conquer Phobias
oVRcome, a phone-based virtual reality (VR) application designed to treat phobias, successfully completed a six-week clinical trial.
From ACM News
Huge Data Leak Shatters the Lie that the Innocent Need Not Fear Surveillance
The Guardian's investigation shows how repressive regimes can buy and use the kind of spying tools Edward Snowden warned us about.
From ACM TechNews
Victoria to Allow Trial of Driverless Cars on Country Roads
The state of Victoria in Australia has approved a trial of driverless cars on rural roads.
From ACM News
Franken-algorithms: The Deadly Consequences of npredictable Code
The death of a woman hit by a self-driving car highlights an unfolding technological crisis, as code piled on code creates 'a universe no one fully understands'...
From ACM News
Holograms: Are They Still the Preserve of Science Fiction?
The fragile apparition endured only long enough to say: "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope" before flickering out.
From ACM News
What Is GDPR and How Will It Affect You?
You could be forgiven for thinking that Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law created to fill your inbox with identikit warnings from every...
From ACM News
Has Dopamine Got s Hooked on Tech?
In an unprecedented attack of candour, Sean Parker, the 38-year-old founding president of Facebook, recently admitted that the social network was founded not to...
From ACM News
Blockchain Is This Year's Buzzword, But Can It Outlive the Hype?
The speculation around cryptocurrencies has obscured the fact that blockchain, the decentralised, open-source ledger that drives bitcoin, could radically change...
From ACM News
Strava Suggests Military sers 'opt Out' of Heatmap as Row Deepens
Fitness-tracking company Strava has defended its publication of heatmaps that accidentally reveal sensitive military positions, arguing that the information was...
From ACM News
Robots Could Destabilise World Through War and nemployment, Says n
The UN has warned that robots could destabilise the world ahead of the opening of a headquarters in The Hague to monitor developments in artificial intelligence...
From ACM Careers
End of the Checkout Line: The Looming Crisis For American Cashiers
The day before a fully automated grocery store opened its doors in 1939, the inventor Clarence Saunders took out a full page advertisement in the Memphis Press-Scimitar...
From ACM TechNews
Google Enters Race For Nuclear Fusion Technology
Google Research and Tri Alpha Energy have developed a computer algorithm called Optometrist that facilitates integrating high-powered computation with human judgment...
From ACM TechNews
Beauty Spot or Landscape Blot? Computer Trained to Judge Scenery
New software that can differentiate scenic views from blots on the landscape.
From ACM News
Give Robots 'personhood' Status, Eu Committee Argues
The European parliament has urged the drafting of a set of regulations to govern the use and creation of robots and artificial intelligence, including a form of...
From ACM News
Robots Will Destroy Our Jobs, and We're Not Ready For It
The McDonald's on the corner of Third Avenue and 58th Street in New York City doesn/t look all that different from any of the fast-food chain's other locations...
From ACM News
Apple Removes New York Times App in China
Apple has removed the New York Times app from its store in China after a government request, in an example of how far the company will go to please the authorities...
From ACM News
European Court of Justice Rules Against Mass Data Retention in Eu
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled on Wednesday that laws allowing for the blanket collection and retention of location and traffic data are...
From ACM TechNews