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Self-Driving Cars Won't Work ­ntil We Change Our Roads—and Attitudes
From ACM Opinion

Self-Driving Cars Won't Work ­ntil We Change Our Roads—and Attitudes

Autonomous vehicles will join human drivers on our roads sooner than most people think.

After Alphago, What's Next For Ai?
From ACM Opinion

After Alphago, What's Next For Ai?

AlphaGo's victories against legendary Go player Lee Se-dol over the last few days mark a major milestone in AI research.

A Computer Takes On a Human Master of the Board Game Go
From ACM Opinion

A Computer Takes On a Human Master of the Board Game Go

In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov. It was a momentous occasion for artificial intelligence, showing how far a clever...

Toward the End of Pilots
From ACM Opinion

Toward the End of Pilots

A memory that’s stayed with me from my stint in the military nearly 50 years ago is a sign that my supply sergeant kept on his desk: "We’ve been working with less...

A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck
From ACM Opinion

A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck

Let's say computers come for most of our jobs. This may not seem likely at the moment; computer scientists and economists offer wildly varying ideas for how deeply...

Can Google's Driverless Car Project Survive a Fatal Accident?
From ACM Opinion

Can Google's Driverless Car Project Survive a Fatal Accident?

Everybody knew this day would come.

How to Build an ­nbeatable Poker-Playing Robot
From ACM Opinion

How to Build an ­nbeatable Poker-Playing Robot

Each summer, the computer-science researchers behind the world's best poker-playing robots bring their creations together for a tournament.

To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare
From ACM Opinion

To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare

"Are you sure they're there?" the decision maker asks. "They" are Qaeda operatives who have been planning attacks against the United States.

Y'all Have a Texas Accent? Siri (and the World) Might Be Slowly Killing It
From ACM Opinion

Y'all Have a Texas Accent? Siri (and the World) Might Be Slowly Killing It

It was a simple enough question, at least in this part of the world.

Your Next New Best Friend Might Be a Robot
From ACM Opinion

Your Next New Best Friend Might Be a Robot

One night in late July 2014, a journalist from the Chinese newspaper Southern Weeklyinterviewed a 17-year-old Chinese girl named Xiaoice (pronounced Shao-ice).

Searching For the Algorithms ­nderlying Life
From ACM Opinion

Searching For the Algorithms ­nderlying Life

To the computer scientist Leslie Valiant, "machine learning" is redundant.

To Keep AI Safe—use AI
From ACM Opinion

To Keep AI Safe—use AI

Software is already pervasive in our society, but artificial intelligence software raises unique concerns even among the technological elite.

AI Is Transforming Google Search. The Rest of the Web Is Next
From ACM Opinion

AI Is Transforming Google Search. The Rest of the Web Is Next

Yesterday, the 46-year-old Google veteran who oversees its search engine, Amit Singhal, announced his retirement. And in short order, Google revealed that Singhal's...

The Language Barrier Is About to Fall
From ACM Opinion

The Language Barrier Is About to Fall

It used to be the case when I traveled abroad that I would take a little pocket dictionary that provided translations for commonly used phrases and words.

Will Machines Eliminate ­s?
From ACM Opinion

Will Machines Eliminate ­s?

Yoshua Bengio leads one of the world's preëminent research groups developing a powerful AI technique known as deep learning.

Digital Intuition
From ACM Opinion

Digital Intuition

Napoleon had it and so did Charles Darwin. Tennis champion Roger Federer has it in spades. The dictionary defines intuition as knowledge obtained without conscious...

Go Players React to Computer Defeat
From ACM Opinion

Go Players React to Computer Defeat

For decades, the ancient game of Go has stood out as the one board game that computers couldn't crack.

If Killer Robots Arrive, the Terminator Will Be the Least of Our Problems
From ACM Opinion

If Killer Robots Arrive, the Terminator Will Be the Least of Our Problems

Autonomous weapons experts sounded the alarm last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, cautioning that unless governments act to limit these...

To Make AI More Human, Teach It to Chitchat
From ACM Opinion

To Make AI More Human, Teach It to Chitchat

Tom was discussing the film star Tang Wei with a chatbot named XiaoIce, and the bot was excited: "A goddess! She stole my heart … and then went off and married!"...

Forget Ai—the Human-Friendly Future of Computing Is Already Here
From ACM Opinion

Forget Ai—the Human-Friendly Future of Computing Is Already Here

For many of us, the concept of artificial intelligence conjures up visions of a machine-dominated world, where humans are servants to the devices they created.
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