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Watchdogs vs. Snowflakes
From Communications of the ACM

Watchdogs vs. Snowflakes

Taking wild guesses.

Automated Health Care Offers Freedom from Shame, But Is It What Patients Need?
From ACM Opinion

Automated Health Care Offers Freedom from Shame, But Is It What Patients Need?

A few years ago, Timothy Bickmore, a computer scientist at Northeastern University, developed an artificial-intelligence program to help low-income patients at...

To Build Truly Intelligent Machines, Teach Them Cause and Effect
From ACM Opinion

To Build Truly Intelligent Machines, Teach Them Cause and Effect

Artificial intelligence owes a lot of its smarts to Judea Pearl.

So, ­mm, Google Duplex's Chatter Is Not Quite Human
From ACM Opinion

So, ­mm, Google Duplex's Chatter Is Not Quite Human

Google's Duplex voice assistant drew applause last week at the company's annual I/O developer conference after CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated the artificially intelligent...

Apple and Its Rivals Bet Their Futures on These Men's Dreams
From ACM News

Apple and Its Rivals Bet Their Futures on These Men's Dreams

Over the past five years, artificial intelligence has gone from perennial vaporware to one of the technology industry's brightest hopes.

How the Enlightenment Ends
From ACM Opinion

How the Enlightenment Ends

Three years ago, at a conference on transatlantic issues, the subject of artificial intelligence appeared on the agenda. I was on the verge of skipping that session—it...

The Data Scientist Helping to Create Ethical Robots
From ACM Opinion

The Data Scientist Helping to Create Ethical Robots

As the lead statistician at the nonprofit Human Rights Data Analysis Group, Kristian Lum, 33, is trying to make sure the algorithms increasingly controlling our...

The Singularity Is Not Near: The Intellectual Fraud of the 'Singularitarians'
From ACM Opinion

The Singularity Is Not Near: The Intellectual Fraud of the 'Singularitarians'

Technology was identified as the true official religion of the modern state more than seventy years ago by the late Christian anarchist philosopher Jacques Ellul...

Facial Recognition Tech Is Creepy When It Works, And Creepier When It Doesn't
From ACM Opinion

Facial Recognition Tech Is Creepy When It Works, And Creepier When It Doesn't

For the last few years, police forces around China have invested heavily to build the world's largest video surveillance and facial recognition system, incorporating...

Google's Duplex Could Make Assistant the Most Lifelike AI Yet
From ACM Opinion

Google's Duplex Could Make Assistant the Most Lifelike AI Yet

The conversation seems mundane. At least, at first.

How Frightened Should We Be of A.I.?
From ACM Opinion

How Frightened Should We Be of A.I.?

Precisely how and when will our curiosity kill us?

One Space Between Each Sentence, They Said. Science Just Proved Them Wrong.
From ACM Opinion

One Space Between Each Sentence, They Said. Science Just Proved Them Wrong.

In the beginning, the rules of the space bar were simple.  Two spaces after each period.  Every time.  Easy.

AI Can Help Cybersecurity, If It Can Fight Through the Hype
From ACM Opinion

AI Can Help Cybersecurity, If It Can Fight Through the Hype

Walking the enormous exhibition halls at the recent RSA security conference in San Francisco, you could have easily gotten the impression that digital defense was...

Nazis Pressed Ham Radio Hobbyists to Serve the Third Reich, but Surviving Came at a Price
From ACM Opinion

Nazis Pressed Ham Radio Hobbyists to Serve the Third Reich, but Surviving Came at a Price

When people have free and unfettered choices of activities, they both entertain and express themselves through their pastimes—whether stamp or coin collecting,...

Alexa, How Do We Take Our Relationship to the Next Level?
From ACM Opinion

Alexa, How Do We Take Our Relationship to the Next Level?

As useful as it would be to interact with smartphones and other gadgets by chatting casually with them, the technology to enable such a simple but meaningful back...

When John Doerr Brought a 'Gift' to Google's Founders
From ACM Opinion

When John Doerr Brought a 'Gift' to Google's Founders

On a fall day in 1999, in the heart of Silicon Valley, I arrived at a two-story, L-shaped structure off the 101 freeway. It was young Google's headquarters, and...

Is the Law Ready for Driverless Cars?
From Communications of the ACM

Is the Law Ready for Driverless Cars?

Yes, with one big exception.

Scale or Fail
From Communications of the ACM

Scale or Fail

Moving beyond self-selected computer science education in Switzerland.

The March Into the Black Hole of Complexity
From Communications of the ACM

The March Into the Black Hole of Complexity

Addressing the root causes of rapidly increasing software complexity.

'2001: A Space Odyssey': What It Means, and How It Was Made
From ACM Opinion

'2001: A Space Odyssey': What It Means, and How It Was Made

Fifty years ago this spring, Stanley Kubrick's confounding sci-fi masterpiece, "2001: A Space Odyssey," had its premières across the country.
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