Communications of the ACM
You Are Already Living Inside a Computer
Suddenly, everything is a computer. Phones, of course, and televisions. Also toasters and door locks, baby monitors and juicers…
From ACM Opinion
Bot and Bothered
Facebook has been working on artificial intelligence that claims to be great at negotiating, makes up its own language and learns to lie.
From ACM Opinion
Human Vs. Machine Contests (Real or Fictional) But Involving Ordinary Humans
I'm looking for a famous (or at least interesting) human vs. machine contest to use as an analogy in an article.
From ACM Opinion
Fear of a Robot Planet
It was in the 12th century that the great brass head built by Albertus Magnus moved its mouth for the first time, breathing steam as it spoke to Magnus' young religious...
From ACM Opinion
The Attack on Global Privacy Leaves Few Places to Turn
Digital privacy has had a very bad summer. As China and Russia move to block virtual private network services, well over a billion people face losing their best...
From ACM Opinion
What Is Ray Kurzweil Up To at Google? Writing Your Emails
Ray Kurzweil has invented a few things in his time.
From ACM Opinion
Editing Human Embryos with CRISPR Is Moving Ahead; Now's the Time to Work Out the Ethics
The announcement by researchers in Portland, Oregon that they've successfully modified the genetic material of a human embryo took some people by surprise.
From ACM Opinion
Apple Is Pulling VPNs from the Chinese App Store. Here's What that Means.
China's restrictive Internet policies are known for blocking Web users who want to reach Google, Facebook or other banned apps. But now some of those policies are...
From ACM Opinion
Profile of Claude Shannon, Inventor of Information Theory
Claude Shannon couldn't sit still.
From ACM Opinion
Better Business Through Sci-Fi
About five years ago, Ari Popper enrolled in a course on science-fiction writing at the University of California, Los Angeles, hoping to distract himself from the...
From ACM Opinion
The Guardian View on the Future of Crime: It Will Be Online
When software gets smarter, the first effect is to empower the already powerful.
From ACM Opinion
If You Could 'Design' Your Own Child, Would You?
Scientists in Portland, Ore., just succeeded in creating the first genetically modified human embryo in the United States, according to Technology Review.
From ACM Opinion
Greetings, E.T. (Please Don't Murder Us.)
On Nov. 16, 1974, a few hundred astronomers, government officials and other dignitaries gathered in the tropical forests of Puerto Rico's northwest interior, a...
From ACM Opinion
What Happened to Trump's War on Data?
On May 16, three months' worth of data vanished quietly from the website of the U.S. Census Bureau.
From ACM Opinion
Zuckerberg and Musk Are Both Wrong About AI
Back in 2015, a group of business leaders and scientists published an "open letter" about how controlling artificial superintelligence might be the most urgent...
From ACM Opinion
Metrology Is Key to Reproducing Results
Imagine you are a policymaker who needs to know how much carbon is stored in the South American forest.
From ACM Opinion
Letting Cyberattack Victims Hack Back is a Very Unwise Idea
As the rate of cybercrime increases, so too does the intensity of those attacks.
From Communications of the ACM
Prophets, Seers, and Pioneers
Reflections on historical prognostications for the future.
From Communications of the ACM
The Natural Science of Computing
As unconventional computing comes of age, we believe a revolution is needed in our view of computer science.
From ACM Opinion