Communications of the ACM
What Would the Chatbot Say?
Seeking to explain the unanticipated abilities of large language models.
From ACM NewsAn edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Typos May Earn Google $500m a Year
Google may be earning $500 million a year via companies and individuals who register deceptive Web site addresses. The claim centers on a controversial scheme known...
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.s. Networks and Power Grid nder (mock) Cyber-Attack
Unknown hackers have taken out U.S. cellphone networks in an ongoing cyber-attack that will soon knock out parts of the nation's electricity grid – say the officials...
From ACM TechNews
Organic Crystals Promise Low-Power Green Computing
Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have discovered ferroelectric behavior in crystalline croconic acid, which...
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Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms
A SWARM of "smart dust" spacecraft, positioned at a sweet spot between the Earth and the sun, could alert us to the approach of dangerous space storms well before...
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Unplugged: Goodbye Cables, Hello Energy Beams
LET'S face it: power cables are unsightly dust-traps. PCs, TVs and music players are becoming slicker every year, but the nest of vipers in the corner of everyAn...
From ACM TechNews
How Crowdsourcing Is Helping in Haiti
The revolution in texting, social networking, and crowdsourcing has enabled innovations such as the 4636 texting service, which is aiding the disaster relief efforts...
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Microsoft's Body-Sensing, Button-Busting Controller
A LONG-lived videogaming skill could be on the way out this year as Microsoft hones an add-on to its Xbox 360 console aimed at making button-studded games controllers...
From ACM TechNews
Learning to Love to Hate Robots
Several studies have recently been conducted to determine how humans and robots interact and how to improve the human-robot relationship. For example, a Carnegie...
From ACM TechNews
Smart Cctv Learns to Spot Suspicious Types
An international team of computer scientists at Queen Mary, University of London are developing intelligent video-surveillance software designed to spot suspicious...
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Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons
A man lies comatose on an operating table. The enormous spider that hangs above him has plunged four appendages into his belly. The spider, made of white steel,...
From ACM TechNews
Theme-Park Dummy Trick Becomes Teleconference Tool
A trick used in theme-park animatronics could help people act more naturally during videoconferences. Shader lamps is a technique that projects an animated face...
From ACM TechNews
Living Wallpaper That Devices Can Relate To
The Living Wall project, led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab researcher Leah Buechley, features an electronically enhanced wallpaper that can...
From ACM TechNews
Free-Flying Cyborg Insects Steered From a Distance
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have connected electrodes and radio antennas to the nervous systems of beetles and then were able to control...
From ACM TechNews
Computer Detects Abuse Before Doctors
Ben Reis at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School led a research team that developed software that could spot warning signs of domestic abuse.
From ACM TechNews
Aid Agencies Turn to Open-Source Software
Wesleyan University and Trinity College students have developed Collabbit, software that acts as a virtual emergency response center. Collabbit serves as a central...
From ACM TechNews
Augmented Reality Gets Off to a Wobbly Start
Although the iPhone can superimpose navigation routes or reviews on top of real-time images, augmented reality (AR) still has a long way to go. The iPhone's application...
From ACM TechNews
Get to Hospital to See the Future
Modern hospitals provide a glimpse into how people will interact with machines in the future, according to a new Gartner report on the future of human-computer...
From ACM TechNews
Worldwide Battle Rages For Control of the Internet
Governments in the Middle East and north Africa routinely block and censor Web sites to control political discussions, according to a new report on the region by...
From ACM TechNews
Pay-Per-Email Plan to Beat Spam and Help Charity
Yahoo! researchers are testing a scheme in which users pay one cent for each email message they send, with the money going to charity, in an effort to cut back...
From ACM TechNews