Communications of the ACM
Spies in Our Pockets
Electronic eavesdropping is becoming ever more nefarious in the age of smartphones and digital devices.
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
An Extra Challenge in a Crisis: Dealing With Rare Languages
Researchers at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute are building machine-learning systems to quickly translate any of the world's...
From ACM News
Chips Off the Old Block: Computers Are Taking Design Cues From Human Brains
We expect a lot from our computers these days. They should talk to us, recognize everything from faces to flowers, and maybe soon do the driving.
From ACM TechNews
Congressional Redistricting Less Contentious When Resolved Using Computer Algorithm
Researchers at the University of Illinois have proposed a computer algorithm that could ease congressional districting and make the process fairer for constituents...
From ACM News
Wanna Stop Distracted Driving? Make Cars That Watch Their Humans
Everyone knows that distracted driving is a problem, but it tends to fall in the "other people/not me" category of personal risk assessment among drivers.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Pioneer Says We Need to Start Over
Hinton suggested that, to get to where neural networks are able to become intelligent on their own, "I suspect that means getting rid of back-propagation."
From ACM News
Treating Cancer, Stopping Violence . . . How AI Protects Us
For some, the spread of artificial intelligence and robotics poses a threat to our privacy, our jobs – even our safety, as more and more tasks are handed over to...
From ACM News
How Apple Is Bringing Us Into the Age of Facial Recognition Whether We're Ready or Not
A whiff of dystopian creepiness has long wafted in the air whenever facial recognition has come up. Books, movies and television shows have portrayed the technology...
From ACM Opinion
Why Google's AI Can Write Beautiful Songs but Still Can't Tell a Joke
Creating noodling piano tunes and endless configurations of cat drawings with AI may not sound like an obvious project for Google, but it makes a lot of sense to...
From ACM News
Operational Limits Played Key Role in Tesla Crash on Autopilot: NTSB
The chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Tuesday "operational limitations" in the Tesla Model S played a "major role" in a May...
From ACM News
As Amazon Pushes Forward With Robots, Workers Find New Roles
Nissa Scott started working at the cavernous Amazon warehouse in southern New Jersey late last year, stacking plastic bins the size of small ottomans.
From ACM News
In the Future, Warehouse Robots Will Learn on Their Own
The robot was perched over a bin filled with random objects, from a box of instant oatmeal to a small toy shark.
From ACM News
Geneticists Pan Paper that Claims to Predict a Person's Face from Their DNA
A storm of criticism has rained down on a paper by genome-sequencing pioneer Craig Venter that claims to predict people's physical traits from their DNA.
From ACM TechNews
New App Could Transform Music Teaching in Schools
Syncphonia is a new application that enables a music teacher to deconstruct a piece of music into its component parts, so each player's part is displayed individually...
From ACM TechNews
New Software Can Detect When People Text and Drive
New algorithms can accurately determine when drivers are texting or engaged in other distracting activities.
From ACM News
For Superpowers, Artificial Intelligence Fuels New Global Arms Race
For many Russian students, the academic year started last Friday with tips on planetary domination from President Vladimir Putin.
From ACM Opinion
Mark Sagar Made a Baby in His Lab. Now It Plays the Piano
People get up to weird things in New Zealand.
From ACM Careers
In a High-Tech World, Car Designers Still Rely on Clay
Car designers have every kind of software and virtual reality tool. But when they want to make sure a car's curves look just right, they rely on one of the world's...
From ACM TechNews
How to Make Robots That We Can Trust
The design of trustworthy autonomous systems must entail consideration of the ability to explain decisions and recourse options when things go awry.
From ACM News
How Apple Finally Made Siri Sound More Human
The first time Alex Acero saw Her, he watched it like a normal person.
From ACM News