Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
50 Years Old, '2001: A Space Odyssey' Still Offers Insight about the Future
Watching a 50th anniversary screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey," I found myself, a mathematician and computer scientist whose research includes work related to...
From ACM Opinion
Brett Kavanaugh and the Information Terrorists Trying to Reshape America
Since the advent of Donald Trump's candidacy, there's been a ton of focus on botnets and sockpuppets—automated and semiautomated social media accounts that use...
From ACM Opinion
Detecting 'DeepFake' Videos in the Blink of an Eye
A new form of misinformation is poised to spread through online communities as the 2018 midterm election campaigns heat up. Called "deepfakes" after the pseudonymous...
From ACM Opinion
The Four Ways that Ex-Internet Idealists Explain Where It All Went Wrong
A long time ago, in the bad old days of the 2000s, debates about the Internet were dominated by two great tribes: the Optimists and the Pessimists.
From Communications of the ACM
When Machine Learning is Facially Invalid
Observations on the use of machine learning and facial inferences to classify people using inexplicable data.
From ACM Opinion
The Future of Television Is … More Television
Call it Jeffrey Katzenberg's unicorn newborn. An operating company has come into being, ex nihilo, with the blandest of names—NewTV—and a valuation north of $1...
From ACM Opinion
There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy
Years ago I spoke with a 16-year-old girl who was considering the idea of having a computer companion in the future, and she described the upside to me.
From ACM Opinion
How Plausible Are All Those Mission: Impossible Gadgets, Anyway?
It's been 22 years since Tom Cruise infiltrated a CIA vault suspended from a wire in the first Mission: Impossible flick.
From ACM Opinion
We Have Reached Peak Screen. Now Revolution Is in the Air.
Smartphones were once the best thing to happen to the tech industry—and for a while, it seemed, to all of us, too.
From ACM Opinion
Article 13: Europe's Hotly Debated Revamp of Copyright Law, Explained
First they came for the privacy violations, then they came for the memes.
From Communications of the ACM
Blockchain Revolution Without the Blockchain?
Most of the suggested benefits of blockchain technologies do not come from elements unique to the blockchain.
From ACM Opinion
How Neal Stephenson Got Book Ideas by Moonlighting at Blue Origin
Neal Stephenson's breakout hit, Snow Crash, envisioned a world of virtual reality—in 1992. The Diamond Age foresaw the future of nanotechnology in 1995. The more...
From ACM Opinion
Going To the World Cup? Leave the Laptop at Home
A Russian sports official earlier this year estimated that as many as 2 million people would flock to the country during the World Cup, the month-long celebration...
From ACM Opinion
The Many Shades of Bad Physics
What happens when you see bad physics in the world? Does it make you angry? Does it make you laugh?
From ACM Opinion
How Fortnite Captured Teens' Hearts and Minds
It was getting late in Tomato Town. The storm was closing in, and meteors pelted the ground.
From ACM Opinion
'2001: A Space Odyssey' Is Still the 'ltimate Trip'
In the spring of 1964 the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was very worried. NASA was about to fly the Mariner 4 space probe past Mars.
From ACM Opinion
Avengers: Infinity War and the CG Effects Behind Thanos
Avengers: Infinity War is packed with dozens of beloved characters we've watched and loved over 10 years of Marvel movies. But one character stands—literally—head...
From ACM Opinion
