Communications of the ACM
Improving Section 230, Preserving Democracy, and Protecting Free Speech
Proposing a framework for a decentralized market where no one party controls the flow of information.
From ACM Opinion
Imagine a World Without Apps
Video games are inching away from apps. Maybe every other industry can, too.
From ACM Opinion
When Algorithms Give Real Students Imaginary Grades
In-person final exams were canceled for thousands of students this spring, so computers stepped in — to disastrous effect.
From ACM Opinion
College Courses Online Are Disappointing. Here's How to Fix Them
Colleges and universities should embrace the classic tutorial system and adapt it for the online world.
From ACM Opinion
For Online Learning, Business Has Never Been Better
Demand for Chegg roughly doubled when schools shut down, but its chief executive, Dan Rosensweig, now needs to figure out how the company will adapt.
From ACM Opinion
A Case for Banning Facial Recognition
A Google research scientist explains why she thinks the police shouldn't use facial recognition software.
From ACM Opinion
The Robot Artists Aren’t Coming
Artificial intelligence is making machines more creative — but machines don't make art.
From ACM Opinion
A Case for Cooperation Between Machines and Humans
A computer scientist argues that the quest for fully automated robots is misguided, perhaps even dangerous. His decades of warnings are gaining more attention. ...
From ACM Opinion
Why Zoom Is Terrible
There's a reason video apps make you feel awkward and unfulfilled.
From ACM Opinion
How to (Carefully) Use Tech to Contain the Coronavirus
The United States can learn from other countries to track the pandemic while still protecting privacy.
From ACM Opinion
We're Banning Facial Recognition. We're Missing the Point.
The whole point of modern surveillance is to treat people differently, and facial recognition technologies are only a small part of that.
From ACM Opinion
A Journey, If You Dare, Into the Minds of Silicon Valley Programmers
Code seems cold and objective, the raw logic of the internet, and Silicon Valley likes it that way.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Fight the Robots. Tax Them.
When Bill Gates floated the idea of imposing a tax on robots a couple of years ago, Lawrence Summers, a former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, called...
From ACM Opinion
The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know
A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills...
From ACM Opinion
How Silicon Valley Puts the 'Con' in Consent
The average person would have to spend 76 working days reading all of the digital privacy policies they agree to in the span of a year. Reading Amazon's terms and...
From ACM Opinion
The Tech That Was Fixed in 2018 and the Tech That Still Needs Fixing
Personal technology was so awful this year that nobody would think you were paranoid if you dug a hole and buried your computer, phone and smart speaker under six...
From ACM Opinion
The Robots Have Descended on Trump Country
The growing use of work robots and the deployment of artificial intelligence have been most disruptive in just those areas of the country that provided President...
From ACM Opinion
The New Radicalization of the Internet
Social media has played a key role in the recent rise of violent right-wing extremism in the United States, including three recent incidents—one in which a man...
From ACM Opinion
How Will We Outsmart A.I. Liars?
During the summer before the 2016 presidential election, John Seymour and Philip Tully, two researchers with ZeroFOX, a security company in Baltimore, unveiled...
From ACM Opinion
At China’s Internet Conference, a Darker Side of Tech Emerges
Every year at the World Internet Conference, held since 2014 in the photogenic canal town of Wuzhen near Shanghai, companies and government officials have convened ...
From ACM Opinion