Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM TechNews
Why a Hacker Is Giving Away a Special Code That Turns Cars Into Self-Driving Machines
The founder of startup Comma.ai has released a free software kit in an effort to accelerate autonomous vehicle technology without running afoul of regulators.
From ACM News
China's Plan to Organize Its Society Relies on 'big Data' to Rate Everyone
Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you...
From ACM Opinion
Nate Silver Blew It When He Missed Trump. Now He Really Needs to Get It Right.
Nate Silver is on the downtown 1 train. Possibly because he looks like a (modestly) hip math teacher, and hardly looks up from his phone, he goes unrecognized until...
From ACM News
The FCC Just Passed Sweeping New Rules to Protect Your Online Privacy
Federal officials delivered a landmark ruling in favor of online privacy Thursday, limiting how Internet providers use and sell customer data, while asserting that...
From ACM News
China Has Now Eclipsed US in AI Research
Humanity may still be years if not decades away from producing sentient artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
Why Apple Can Be Forced to Turn Logs of Your Imessage Contacts Over to Police
When a user sends someone a message through Apple's iMessage feature, Apple encrypts that message between Apple devices so that only the sender and recipient can...
From ACM News
Confused About Those Emergency Cellphone Alerts? Here's How They Work.
Many New York-area commuters on Monday were interrupted by this alert on their cellphones: "WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9...
From ACM News
The Science of Smartphone Batteries and How to Keep Them Charged
Whenever a new iPhone gets announced, there's one feature that every Apple lover is hoping for: improved battery life.
From ACM News
The Bizarre World of Bitcoin 'mining' Finds a New Home in Tibet
Inside a metal shed in the Tibetan highlands of western China, thousands of microprocessors flank narrow corridors, generating a constant hum and stifling waves...
From ACM TechNews
Who Would Win the Coding Olympics?
U.S. programmers landed in 28th place in a HackerRank compilation of the results of 1.4 million coding challenges by approximately 300,000 developers.
From ACM Opinion
Here's How Russian Hackers Could Actually Tip an American Election
Reports this week of Russian intrusions into U.S. election systems have startled many voters, but computer experts are not surprised.
From ACM News
98 Personal Data Points that Facebook ses to Target Ads to You
Say you're scrolling through your Facebook Newsfeed and you encounter an ad so eerily well-suited, it seems someone has possibly read your brain.
From ACM News
Putting a Computer in Your Brain Is No Longer Science Fiction
Like many in Silicon Valley, technology entrepreneur Bryan Johnson sees a future in which intelligent machines can do things like drive cars on their own and anticipate...
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook: Running Apple 'is Sort of a Lonely Job'
On a sleek white coffee table in Apple CEO Tim Cook's fourth-floor office in late July, beneath framed posters of Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King...
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft's President Explains the Company's Quiet Legal War For ser Privacy
Apple's legal battle over encryption dominated headlines earlier this year, but another tech giant is fighting a quieter legal war over user privacy: Microsoft....
From ACM News
How Artificial Intelligence Could Help Warn S of Another Dallas
As the country reels from the spasm of gun violence that killed two black men and five police officers this week, a prominent digital vigilante is using an online...
From ACM News
Putin Signs New Anti-Terror Law in Russia. Edward Snowden Is pset.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law a controversial package of counterterrorism measures, including tougher sentences for extremism and...
From ACM News
This New Device Can Visualize Your Thoughts (sort Of)
The idea of a device that can materialize one's memories out of thin air seems like it could only exist in science fiction. But in a new study, researchers were...
From ACM News
China's Scary Lesson to the World: Censoring the Internet Works.
First there was the Berlin Wall. Now there is the Great Firewall of China, not a physical barrier preventing people from leaving, but a virtual one, preventing...
From ACM Opinion