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dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectPerformance And Reliability
authorThe New York Times
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For the Debaters: What Shall We Do About the Tech Careening Our Way?
From ACM Opinion

For the Debaters: What Shall We Do About the Tech Careening Our Way?

Here's a question I’m hoping comes up at Monday's presidential debate: Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump, what would you do about self-driving trucks?

How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics For Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics For Artificial Intelligence

For years, science-fiction moviemakers have been making us fear the bad things that artificially intelligent machines might do to their human creators.

Lessons From the Tesla Crash
From ACM Opinion

Lessons From the Tesla Crash

A recent fatal crash in Florida involving a Tesla Model S is an example of how a new technology designed to make cars safer could, in some cases, make them more...

To Write Better Code, Read Virginia Woolf
From ACM Opinion

To Write Better Code, Read Virginia Woolf

The humanities are kaput. Sorry, liberal arts cap-and-gowners. You blew it. In a software-run world, what's wanted are more engineers.

Eske Willerslev Is Rewriting History With Dna
From ACM Opinion

Eske Willerslev Is Rewriting History With Dna

As a boy growing up in Denmark, Eske Willerslev could not wait to leave Gentofte, his suburban hometown. As soon as he was old enough, he would strike out for the...

When Is the Singularity? Probably Not in Your Lifetime
From ACM Opinion

When Is the Singularity? Probably Not in Your Lifetime

Misconception: Computers will outstrip human capabilities within many of our lifetimes.

To Beat Go Champion, Google's Program Needed a Human Army
From ACM Opinion

To Beat Go Champion, Google's Program Needed a Human Army

Nearly 20 years ago, after a chess-playing computer called Deep Blue beat the world grandmaster Garry Kasparov, I wrote an article about why humans would long remain...

A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck
From ACM Opinion

A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck

Let's say computers come for most of our jobs. This may not seem likely at the moment; computer scientists and economists offer wildly varying ideas for how deeply...

To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare
From ACM Opinion

To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare

"Are you sure they're there?" the decision maker asks. "They" are Qaeda operatives who have been planning attacks against the United States.

Political Gifs Are the New Sound Bites This Campaign Season
From ACM Opinion

Political Gifs Are the New Sound Bites This Campaign Season

Every few decades, a piece of technology comes along that alters political campaigning.

The End of Work?
From ACM Opinion

The End of Work?

Welcome to the era of AI-human hybrid intelligence, where people and artificial intelligence systems work together seamlessly.

Dark Clouds Over the Internet
From ACM Opinion

Dark Clouds Over the Internet

The Internet is routinely described as borderless, and that is often how it feels.

The Cyberthreat ­nder the Street
From ACM Opinion

The Cyberthreat ­nder the Street

Within the last year there have been 16 so-called fiber cuts in the San Francisco Bay Area.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.i.
From ACM Opinion

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.i.

The distinction between man and machine is under siege.

Robot Weapons: What's the Harm?
From ACM Opinion

Robot Weapons: What's the Harm?

Last month over a thousand scientists and tech-world luminaries, including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak, released an open letter calling for a global...

With Google as Alphabet, a Bid to Dream Big Beyond Search
From ACM Opinion

With Google as Alphabet, a Bid to Dream Big Beyond Search

Shortly after its founding, Google posted a document on its site called "Ten things we know to be true," an effort to distill its unusual corporate culture into...

The Web-Connected Car Is Cool, ­ntil Hackers Cut Your Brakes
From ACM Opinion

The Web-Connected Car Is Cool, ­ntil Hackers Cut Your Brakes

When the history of the connected car is written, this week may go down as a pivotal moment for consumers worried about security.

A Murky Road Ahead For Android, Despite Market Dominance
From ACM Opinion

A Murky Road Ahead For Android, Despite Market Dominance

In 2005, Google bought a tiny mobile software company named Android, and almost nobody in the technology industry saw its potential—not even Eric Schmidt, Google's...

Behind the Downfall at Blackberry
From ACM Opinion

Behind the Downfall at Blackberry

Ever since Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down as co-chairmen and co-chief executives of BlackBerry, neither has spoken much in public about the once-dominant...

Why Robots Will Always Need ­S
From ACM Opinion

Why Robots Will Always Need ­S

"Human beings are ashamed to have been born instead of made," wrote the philosopher Günther Anders in 1956. Our shame has only deepened as our machines have grown...
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