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An Intrepid Explorer of Mars Falls Silent
From ACM Opinion

An Intrepid Explorer of Mars Falls Silent

Opportunity, formally known as Mars Exploration Rover B but as Oppy to its many friends and admirers, was pronounced dead on Wednesday after a final round of beamed...

Be Kind to Extraterrestrials
From ACM Opinion

Be Kind to Extraterrestrials

In his celebrated book On Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau wrote: "We need the tonic of wildness.... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all...

Electronic Contracts and the Illusion of Consent
From ACM Opinion

Electronic Contracts and the Illusion of Consent

Q: What do you do when you see a little button on a webpage or app screen that says I agree?

The ­S Cannot Crush ­s, Says Huawei Founder
From ACM Opinion

The ­S Cannot Crush ­s, Says Huawei Founder

The founder of Huawei has said there is "no way the US can crush" the company, in an exclusive interview with the BBC.

The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know
From ACM Opinion

The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know

A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills...

What Trump's Executive Order on AI Is Missing
From ACM Opinion

What Trump's Executive Order on AI Is Missing

President Trump signed an executive order on February 11 meant to shore up our competitive position in the international race for AI supremacy, but it is short...

This Is Why AI Has Yet to Reshape Most Businesses
From ACM Opinion

This Is Why AI Has Yet to Reshape Most Businesses

The art of making perfumes and colognes hasn't changed much since the 1880s, when synthetic ingredients began to be used.

Trump's Plan to Keep America First in AI
From ACM Opinion

Trump's Plan to Keep America First in AI

The US leads the world in artificial intelligence technology. Decades of federal research funding, industrial and academic research, and streams of foreign talent...

The New Censors Won't Delete Your Words; They'll Drown Them Out
From ACM Opinion

The New Censors Won't Delete Your Words; They'll Drown Them Out

Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth. Each day, the hero of George Orwell's "1984" "corrects" old newspapers to make sure that the information is in still...

Can Subscriptions Save All Media Companies, or Just the New York Times?
From ACM Opinion

Can Subscriptions Save All Media Companies, or Just the New York Times?

It's hard not to feel some whiplash when reading news about the media business these days.

There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology
From ACM Opinion

There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology

In his 2008 white paper that first proposed bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto concluded with: "We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without...

How Silicon Valley Puts the 'Con' in Consent
From ACM Opinion

How Silicon Valley Puts the 'Con' in Consent

The average person would have to spend 76 working days reading all of the digital privacy policies they agree to in the span of a year. Reading Amazon's terms and...

Google Assistant Is Getting Sci-Fi Ambitious
From ACM Opinion

Google Assistant Is Getting Sci-Fi Ambitious

From 550 feet in the air, Google's Scott Huffman peers down at the Las Vegas skyline. It's a sunny afternoon in early January and, at the moment, Google owns this...

Trump Pledges Investment, But Is Silent on Key Tech Issues
From ACM Opinion

Trump Pledges Investment, But Is Silent on Key Tech Issues

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Trump promised legislation to invest in "the cutting edge industries of the future." But the speech was characteristically...

People Don't Trust Blockchain Systems. Is Regulation a Way to Help?
From ACM Opinion

People Don't Trust Blockchain Systems. Is Regulation a Way to Help?

Blockchain technology isn't as widely used as it could be, largely because blockchain users don't trust each other, as research shows.

How to Land a Journal Cover
From ACM Opinion

How to Land a Journal Cover

Researchers: Felice Frankel will make photographers of you all. Photography—both macro- and microscopic—is an essential tool in science, because pictures are both...

The Roger Stone Indictment Shows a Conspiratorial Comedy of Opsec Errors
From ACM Opinion

The Roger Stone Indictment Shows a Conspiratorial Comedy of Opsec Errors

Former Trump advisor and self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" Roger Stone—the man with a Richard Nixon tattoo on his back and a penchant for playing the evil genius—was...

Technologies to Watch in 2019
From ACM Opinion

Technologies to Watch in 2019

Seven specialists forecast the developments that will push their fields forward in the year ahead.

'The Goal Is to Automate ­s': Welcome to the Age of Surveillance Capitalism
From ACM Opinion

'The Goal Is to Automate ­s': Welcome to the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

We're living through the most profound transformation in our information environment since Johannes Gutenberg's invention of printing in circa 1439.

Cinematic and Scientific Techniques Combine to Show How a Long-Extinct Creature Moved
From ACM Opinion

Cinematic and Scientific Techniques Combine to Show How a Long-Extinct Creature Moved

The trolls and orcs in The Lord of the Rings films aren't real. The dragons and dire wolves on the hit television show Game of Thrones are simulated. The dinosaurs...
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