Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2019
From ACM Opinion
Are We Witnessing A New Sputnik Moment In IT?
Google's engineers have succeeded in designing a quantum computer which, for the first time ever, has solved a problem a conventional computer is not able to. Are we witnessing a new Sputnik moment in IT?
From ACM Opinion
Siri's #MeToo Responses Show Why Tech Needs Women
Once, when users called Siri a "slut," the service responded: "I'd blush if I could." Such programming missteps could have been avoided altogether if there were more women involved in Siri's design and programming.
From ACM Opinion
A Controversial Plan to Encrypt More of the Internet
The road to routing all Domain Name System lookups through HTTPS is pocked with disagreements over just how much it will help.
From ACM Opinion
How Artificial Intelligence Is Supercharging Materials Science
MIT Associate Professor Juejun Hu shines a light on the impact machine learning and AI are having on materials science and engineering.
From ACM Opinion
I Competed Against An AI
Marc Zao-Sanders, founder and CEO of Filtered, squared off against magpie, the set of algorithms that recommends learning content to people looking to pick up new skills.
From ACM Opinion
Asimov's Three Laws Have Failed the Robots
Almost no one thinks that Isaac Asimov's Three Laws could work for truly intelligent AI.
From Communications of the ACM
The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development
How cloud computing became a platform.
From Communications of the ACM
How Might We Increase System Trustworthiness?
Summarizing some of the changes that seem increasingly necessary to address known system and network deficiencies and anticipate currently unknown vulnerabilities.
From Communications of the ACM
What Is a Chief Security Officer Good For?
Security requires more than an off-the-shelf solution.
From Communications of the ACM
Multi-Device Digital Assistance
Increased availability of cloud services and ownership of multiple digital devices create unique opportunities for digital assistants to provide guidance across a range of tasks and scenarios.
If We Want Women to Persist in Computing, Teach Them Programming At Any Age
10.06.2019Two recent reports point to the important of teaching female students to program and that it's never "too late."
Vice Epistemology of the Internet
09.30.2019How can we apply virtue epistemology to the problem of fake news?
The African Enigma: Who Knows More?
09.05.2019Tally sticks and notched bones are among the oldest digital data carriers.
Artificial Intelligence: What’s to Fear?
10.15.2019What should worry us most about artificial intelligence: losing our …
How the U.S. Census Kickstarted America’s Computing Industry
10.15.2019As the country grew, each census required greater effort than …
Europe's Old Universities Spin Out New Tech Companies
10.15.2019Across Europe, some of the world's oldest universities are intensifying …