Communications of the ACM
From ACM Opinion
Evolution Is at Work in Computers as well as Life Sciences
Artificial intelligence research has a lot to learn from nature.
From ACM Opinion
There May Soon Be Three Internets. America's Won't Necessarily Be the Best.
In September, Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive and Alphabet chairman, said that in the next 10 to 15 years, the internet would most likely be split...
From ACM Opinion
You're Expecting Too Much Out of Boston Dynamics' Robots
At the WIRED25 festival in San Francisco Sunday evening, Boston Dynamics' SpotMini robot got onstage and did what no other quadruped robot has done before: It danced...
From ACM Opinion
Trolling, Hacking and the 2016 US Presidential Election
Late in 2016, then-US President Barack Obama mused in an interview with The New Yorker magazine that he had probably been elected because his campaign had begun...
From ACM Opinion
A Future Where Everything Becomes a Computer Is as Creepy as You Feared
More than 40 years ago, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft with a vision for putting a personal computer on every desk.
From ACM Opinion
How Sci-Fi Like WarGames Led to Real Policy During the Reagan Administration
This year, John Badham's WarGames—one of the movies most beloved by hackers, techies, and tech policy wonks (like me!)—celebrates its 35th anniversary.
From ACM Opinion
Why Do Computers Use So Much Energy?
Microsoft is currently running an interesting set of hardware experiments.
From ACM Opinion
Introducing the Internet Bill of Rights
Should American citizens get a new Bill of Rights for the internet?
From ACM Opinion
This Tech Would Have Spotted the Secret Chinese Chip in Seconds
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, spies in China managed to insert chips into computer systems that would allow external control of those systems.
From ACM Opinion
Clicks, Lies and Videotape
This past April a new video of Barack Obama surfaced on the Internet. Against a backdrop that included both the American and presidential flags, it looked like...
From ACM Opinion
50 Years Old, '2001: A Space Odyssey' Still Offers Insight about the Future
Watching a 50th anniversary screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey," I found myself, a mathematician and computer scientist whose research includes work related to...
From ACM Opinion
Brett Kavanaugh and the Information Terrorists Trying to Reshape America
Since the advent of Donald Trump's candidacy, there's been a ton of focus on botnets and sockpuppets—automated and semiautomated social media accounts that use...
From ACM Opinion
Why We're Training the Next Generation of Lawyers in Big Data
Artificial intelligence is transforming the traditional delivery of legal services.
From ACM Opinion
Will L.A.'s Anti-Terrorist Subway Scanners Be Adopted Everywhere?
In mid-August the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Transportation Security Administration announced Metro has paid $100,000 each...
From ACM Opinion
Google at 20: How Two 'Obnoxious' Students Changed the Internet
In the summer of 1995, a second-year grad student called Sergey Brin was giving a tour of Stanford University to prospective students. Larry Page, an engineering...
From ACM Opinion
When Reporting on Defcon, Avoid Stereotypes and A.T.M.s
As one of The New York Times's three Surfacing residents, I've grown accustomed to entering unfamiliar places.
From ACM Opinion
Paper-Based Electronics Could Fold, Biodegrade and Be the Basis for the Next Generation of Devices
It seems like every few months there's a new cellphone, laptop or tablet that is so exciting people line up around the block to get their hands on it.
From ACM Opinion
How America Could Lose the Quantum-Computing Race
There's an arms race underway to develop the next generation of computers—known as "quantum" computers—and there's no guarantee that the United States is going...
From ACM Opinion
In 1968, Computers Got Personal: How the 'Mother of All Demos' Changed the World
On a crisp California afternoon in early December 1968, a square-jawed, mild-mannered Stanford researcher named Douglas Engelbart took the stage at San Francisco's...
From ACM Opinion