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Communications of the ACM

Opinion Archive


Archives

The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.

October 2019


From ACM Opinion

Why Google's Quantum Supremacy Milestone Matters

Why Google's Quantum Supremacy Milestone Matters

Quantum computing is the first computing paradigm since Turing expected to change the fundamental scaling behavior of algorithms, making certain tasks feasible that had previously been exponentially hard.


From ACM TechNews

Tech Giants Have Hijacked the Web. It's Time for a Reboot

Tech Giants Have Hijacked the Web. It's Time for a Reboot

Technology giants like Facebook and Google have transformed the Internet into a corporate monopoly, experts warn, but a growing cottage industry aims to decentralize the Web to ensure free and open information.


 


From ACM Opinion

Should Computer Science Be Required?

Should Computer Science Be Required?

At far too many institutions today, students who are not computer science majors encounter severe enrollment caps and watered-down or limited courses, writes Robert Sedgewick.


From ACM Opinion

Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Shut Up

Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Shut Up

Since 2017, nearly every time the Facebook CEO has tried to sound thoughtful, he's sounded unprepared, shallow, and full of hubris. Time to zip it.


From ACM Opinion

50 Years Ago, I Helped Invent the Internet. How Did It Go So Wrong?

50 Years Ago, I Helped Invent the Internet. How Did It Go So Wrong?

We did not anticipate that the dark side of the Internet would emerge with such ferocity. Or that we would feel an urgent need to fix it.


From ACM Opinion

Don't Kill Innovation With Excessive Regulation

Don't Kill Innovation With Excessive Regulation

California's new law forcing ride-sharing companies to treat their drivers as employees could harm or kill an important new business model.


From ACM Opinion

This 11-Year-Old CEO Wants to Teach Kids Everywhere to Code

This 11-Year-Old CEO Wants to Teach Kids Everywhere to Code

Samaira Mehta, co-founder of CodeBunnyz and founder of the Yes, 1 Billion Kids Can Code initiative, talks about why age is just a number, her dream of becoming president of the United States, and why she wishes she could clone…


From ACM Opinion

Why Matthew Miller Sees a Bright Future for Fedora

Why Matthew Miller Sees a Bright Future for Fedora

Fedora project leader Matthew Miller discusses popular adoption, competing standards, upcoming changes, and hot-button topics such as systemd.


From ACM Opinion

Are We Witnessing A New Sputnik Moment In IT?

Are We Witnessing A New Sputnik Moment In IT?

Google's engineers have succeeded in designing a quantum computer which, for the first time ever, has solved a problem a conventional computer is not able to. Are we witnessing a new Sputnik moment in IT?


From ACM Opinion

Siri's #MeToo Responses Show Why Tech Needs Women

Siri's #MeToo Responses Show Why Tech Needs Women

Once, when users called Siri a "slut," the service responded: "I'd blush if I could." Such programming missteps could have been avoided altogether if there were more women involved in Siri's design and programming.


From ACM Opinion

A Controversial Plan to Encrypt More of the Internet

A Controversial Plan to Encrypt More of the Internet

The road to routing all Domain Name System lookups through HTTPS is pocked with disagreements over just how much it will help.


From ACM Opinion

How Artificial Intelligence Is Supercharging Materials Science

How Artificial Intelligence Is Supercharging Materials Science

MIT Associate Professor Juejun Hu shines a light on the impact machine learning and AI are having on materials science and engineering.


From ACM Opinion

I Competed Against An AI

I Competed Against An AI

Marc Zao-Sanders, founder and CEO of Filtered, squared off against magpie, the set of algorithms that recommends learning content to people looking to pick up new skills.


From ACM Opinion

Asimov's Three Laws Have Failed the Robots

Asimov's Three Laws Have Failed the Robots

Almost no one thinks that Isaac Asimov's Three Laws could work for truly intelligent AI.


From Communications of the ACM

The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development

The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development

How cloud computing became a platform.


From Communications of the ACM

How Might We Increase System Trustworthiness?

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.


From Communications of the ACM

What Is a Chief Security Officer Good For?

What Is a Chief Security Officer Good For?

Security requires more than an off-the-shelf solution.


From Communications of the ACM

Multi-Device Digital Assistance

Multi-Device Digital Assistance

Increased availability of cloud services and ownership of multiple digital devices create unique opportunities for digital assistants to provide guidance across a range of tasks and scenarios.

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