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Ulterior Motives
From Communications of the ACM

Ulterior Motives

2023-2024 ACM Athena Lecturer Margo Seltzer recalls the motivations behind the development of the Berkeley DB database software library, and other achievements...

For a More Transparent Governance of Open Source
From Communications of the ACM

For a More Transparent Governance of Open Source

Seeking the best governance models for FOSS projects.

Can Generative AI Bots Be Trusted?
From Communications of the ACM

Can Generative AI Bots Be Trusted?

It will be a long road to learning how to use generative AI wisely.

AI Not Yet Intelligent Enough to Be a Trusted Research Aid
From ACM Opinion

AI Not Yet Intelligent Enough to Be a Trusted Research Aid

An attempt to use ChatGPT for scholarly research proves uncovers errors and frustration.

Computers Have Memories Too
From ACM Opinion

Computers Have Memories Too

Simons Foundation Junior Fellow Sebastian Wolff discusses his quest to simplify the switch between the two deletion processes.

Web Scraping
From ACM Opinion

Web Scraping

The increasing use of computational approaches for data collection and data analysis in social sciences research.

Facebook's Missteps Should Be a Lesson for Web3
From ACM Opinion

Facebook's Missteps Should Be a Lesson for Web3

The new crop of technologists building Web3 can still learn a lot from Open Graph's problems

Using Computer Programs and Search Problems for Teaching Theory of Computation
From Communications of the ACM

Using Computer Programs and Search Problems for Teaching Theory of Computation

Recognizing the significance of a cornerstone of computer science.

How Might We Increase System Trustworthiness?
From Communications of the ACM

How Might We Increase System Trustworthiness?

Summarizing some of the changes that seem increasingly necessary to address known system and network deficiencies and anticipate currently unknown vulnerabilities...

The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development
From Communications of the ACM

The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development

How cloud computing became a platform.

The FBI Wanted a Backdoor to the iPhone. Tim Cook Said No
From ACM Opinion

The FBI Wanted a Backdoor to the iPhone. Tim Cook Said No

In 2016, Tim Cook fought the law—and won.

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...

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...

'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.

Happy 18th Birthday, Wikipedia. Let's Celebrate the Internet's Good Grown-­p.
From ACM Opinion

Happy 18th Birthday, Wikipedia. Let's Celebrate the Internet's Good Grown-­p.

On Tuesday, Wikipedia celebrates its 18th birthday. If the massive crowdsourced encyclopedia project were human, then in most countries, it would just now be considered...

To Cover China, There's No Substitute for WeChat
From ACM Opinion

To Cover China, There's No Substitute for WeChat

How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Li Yuan, a technology columnist in Hong Kong, discussed the tech she's...

Countering Russian Disinformation the Baltic Nations' Way
From ACM News

Countering Russian Disinformation the Baltic Nations' Way

As the new Congress begins, it will soon discuss the comprehensive reports to the U.S. Senate on the disinformation campaign of half-truths, outright fabrications...

How Russia ­sed the Internet to Perfect Its Dark Arts
From ACM Opinion

How Russia ­sed the Internet to Perfect Its Dark Arts

Imagine American politics for a moment as a laboratory experiment. A foreign adversary (let's call it "Russia") begins to play with the subjects, using carrots...
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