Communications of the ACM
This Is Why AI Has Yet to Reshape Most Businesses
The art of making perfumes and colognes hasn't changed much since the 1880s, when synthetic ingredients began to be used.
From ACM Opinion
What's Behind China's Space Programme Expansion
China is a relative late-bloomer when it comes to the world of space exploration. But just 15 years after it first sent an astronaut into orbit, China has become...
From ACM Opinion
Tor Is Easier Than Ever. Time to Give It a Try
You probably know about the digital anonymity service Tor, but for whatever reason you may not actually use it.
From ACM Opinion
China vs. the US: Who Wins and Who Loses
Born in Beijing and educated at Harvard, Yasheng Huang, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, is a keen observer of China's entrepreneurial efforts and...
From ACM Opinion
Is Quantum Computing a Cybersecurity Threat?
Cybersecurity researchers and analysts are rightly worried that a new type of computer, based on quantum physics rather than more standard electronics, could ...
From ACM Opinion
7 Arguments Against the Autonomous-Vehicle Utopia
Self-driving cars are coming. Tech giants such as Uber and Alphabet have bet on it, as have old-school car manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors.
From ACM Opinion
How Russia Used the Internet to Perfect Its Dark Arts
Imagine American politics for a moment as a laboratory experiment. A foreign adversary (let's call it "Russia") begins to play with the subjects, using carrots...
From ACM Opinion
Don't Fear the Robot Overlords; Embrace Them as Coworkers
In a chilly warehouse just outside of Boston, the brute toils away. It's 600 pounds of orange and black metal and whirring motors, a massive robotic arm that picks...
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
How China Got a Head Start in Fintech, and Why the West Won't Catch Up
In 2013 I moved from Paris to Beijing to study China's financial system. I stayed for two years and became fluent enough to translate economics books from Mandarin...
From ACM Opinion
The Search for Anti-Conservative Bias on Google
Last Wednesday, a day after Google's C.E.O., Sundar Pichai, sat before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the company's search engine,Donald...
From ACM Opinion
The Man Turning China Into a Quantum Superpower
On September 29, 2017, a Chinese satellite known as Micius made possible an unhackable videoconference between Vienna and Beijing, two cities half a world apart...
From ACM Opinion
Google Isn't the Company that We Should Have Handed the Web Over To
With Microsoft's decision to end development of its own Web rendering engine and switch to Chromium, control over the Web has functionally been ceded to Google....
From Communications of the ACM
Modeling in Engineering and Science
Understanding behavior by building models.
From Communications of the ACM
UCF's 30-Year REU Site in Computer Vision
A unique perspective on experiences encouraging students to focus on further education.
From Communications of the ACM
Hey Google, What's a Moonshot?: How Silicon Valley Mocks Apollo
Fifty years on, NASA's expensive triumph is a widely misunderstood model for spectacular innovation.
From Communications of the ACM
CRISPR: An Emerging Platform for Gene Editing
Considering a potential platform candidate in the evolving realm of gene-editing technologies research.
From Communications of the ACM
Illegal Pricing Algorithms
Examining the potential legal consequences of using pricing algorithms.
From ACM Opinion
The US Needs to Engage China on Tech, Or Risk Isolating Itself
The contrast could hardly be more striking. In October, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering speech accusing China of stealing prized US technology...
From ACM Opinion
Classical and Quantum Computers Are Vying for Superiority
Will 2019 be the year when quantum computers show they have the right stuff? Google says so; one of the company's labs, in Santa Barbara, California, has promised...
From ACM Opinion