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dateMore Than a Year Ago
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It's Been 20 Years Since This Man Declared Cyberspace Independence
From ACM Opinion

It's Been 20 Years Since This Man Declared Cyberspace Independence

When digital dystopians and critics of Internet libertarians need a rhetorical dart board, they often pull out a document written by John Perry Barlow, co-founder...

Snowden's Chronicler Reveals Her Own Life ­nder Surveillance
From ACM Opinion

Snowden's Chronicler Reveals Her Own Life ­nder Surveillance

Laura Poitras has a talent for disappearing. In her early documentaries like My Country, My Country and The Oath, her camera seems to float invisibly in rooms where...

AI Is Transforming Google Search. The Rest of the Web Is Next
From ACM Opinion

AI Is Transforming Google Search. The Rest of the Web Is Next

Yesterday, the 46-year-old Google veteran who oversees its search engine, Amit Singhal, announced his retirement. And in short order, Google revealed that Singhal's...

Proposed State Bans on Phone Encryption Make Zero Sense
From ACM Opinion

Proposed State Bans on Phone Encryption Make Zero Sense

American politics has long accepted the strange notion that just a pair of states—namely Iowa and New Hampshire—get an outsize vote in choosing America’s next president...

To Make AI More Human, Teach It to Chitchat
From ACM Opinion

To Make AI More Human, Teach It to Chitchat

Tom was discussing the film star Tang Wei with a chatbot named XiaoIce, and the bot was excited: "A goddess! She stole my heart … and then went off and married!"...

Forget Ai—the Human-Friendly Future of Computing Is Already Here
From ACM Opinion

Forget Ai—the Human-Friendly Future of Computing Is Already Here

For many of us, the concept of artificial intelligence conjures up visions of a machine-dominated world, where humans are servants to the devices they created.

Space Mining Could Set Off a Star War
From ACM Opinion

Space Mining Could Set Off a Star War

Space is lousy with profits.

Security's Biggest Winners and Losers in 2015
From ACM Opinion

Security's Biggest Winners and Losers in 2015

This year, lawmakers surprised us by taking initial steps—albeit, baby ones—to rein in some of the NSA's mass spying and provide better oversight of the intelligence...

Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World
From ACM Opinion

Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World

Elon Musk and Sam Altman worry that artificial intelligence will take over the world. So, the two entrepreneurs are creating a billion-dollar not-for-profit company...

Huge MIT Media Lab Inventions That Transformed Our World
From ACM Opinion

Huge MIT Media Lab Inventions That Transformed Our World

For the last 30 years, the MIT Lab has been a breeding ground for technological progress that’s pushed the world into the future.

Crispr Is Getting Better. Now It's Time to Ask the Hard Ethical Questions
From ACM Opinion

Crispr Is Getting Better. Now It's Time to Ask the Hard Ethical Questions

When Chinese scientists announced in April they had edited human embryos using a new genetic tool called Crispr, the headlines blared "designer babies," and the...

How to Baffle Web Trackers By Obfuscating Your Movements Online
From ACM Opinion

How to Baffle Web Trackers By Obfuscating Your Movements Online

Online ad networks and search engines love it when you surf around.

Hackers Make Cars Safer. Don't Ban Them From Tinkering
From ACM Opinion

Hackers Make Cars Safer. Don't Ban Them From Tinkering

Virtually every new car sold today has some sort of network connection.

Guys, Lots of Signals from Space Seem Like Aliens
From ACM Opinion

Guys, Lots of Signals from Space Seem Like Aliens

Last week, astronomers—amateur and pro—got excited about some strange results from the Kepler Space Telescope, the NASA observatory tasked with searching for Earth...

Tech Companies Can Blame Snowden For Data Privacy Decision
From ACM Opinion

Tech Companies Can Blame Snowden For Data Privacy Decision

A ruling the Europe Union’s highest court yesterday may create enormous headaches for US tech companies like Google and Facebook.

Apple's 3d Touch Is the Start of a New Interface Revolution
From ACM Opinion

Apple's 3d Touch Is the Start of a New Interface Revolution

If you want to understand the potential of 3D Touch, the new of method of tapping and pressing on the screens of the latest iPhones, forget about the marketing...

How to Get to Mars ... And Maybe Even Live There
From ACM Opinion

How to Get to Mars ... And Maybe Even Live There

There's something about the Red Planet—so close yet so far, inhospitable yet perhaps not totally uninhabitable—that keeps us dreaming about getting there one day...

We're on the Brink of a Revolution in Crazy-Smart Digital Assistants
From ACM Opinion

We're on the Brink of a Revolution in Crazy-Smart Digital Assistants

Here's a quick story you’ve probably heard before, followed by one you probably haven't.

You Can't ­nderstand Security Without These Classic Works
From ACM Opinion

You Can't ­nderstand Security Without These Classic Works

There are seminal books, movies, articles, and more that you've been meaning to get to but just haven't made the time for.

The Amazingly Accurate Futurism of 2001: A Space Odyssey
From ACM Opinion

The Amazingly Accurate Futurism of 2001: A Space Odyssey

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey" documents in nearly scientific detail exactly that: the story of how the iconic science-fiction film came...
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