Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From Computational Complexity
Defending Theory
In the June CACM, Micah Beck writes an opinion piece Accept the Consequences where he is quite skeptical of the role of theory in real-world software development...
From Computational Complexity
Rules vs Standards
You can write laws that are very specific, like the US tax code, or open to interpretation like the first amendment. In the literature these are known as rules respectively...
From Computational Complexity
The Hilltop Story
On Route 1 in Saugus, Massachusetts, about a twenty minute drive from Cambridge, stood the Hilltop Steak House. When I went to graduate school in the late 80's...
From Computational Complexity
The Blog of Record
On Saturday, I had my last Illinois Tech graduation as dean before I step down at the end of June. The College of Computing had nearly 1600 graduates and I shook...
From Computational Complexity
A Bittersweet Anniversary
The National Science Foundation was founded on May 10, 1950, 75 years ago last Saturday. No doubt the NSF has seen better days, but first let's take a look back...
From Computational Complexity
Using AI for Reviews
I reviewed a paper recently and I had to agree not to use AI in any aspect of the reviewing process. So I didn't but it felt strange, like I wouldn't be able to...
From Computational Complexity
P v NP Papers Galore
As someone who has literally written a book on the topic, I have had many people over the years send me their attempts at P v NP proofs. On average, I receive about...
From Computational Complexity
Real People
Right after the election I wrote a post predicting what would happen to higher education under Trump, most of which is coming true, but I had a massive failuretracker...
From Computational Complexity
Eisenhower's Farewell Address
I'm short on time time this week so I thought it would be good to look back, some 64 years ago, to Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address. It calls for balance between...
From Computational Complexity
Why Can't We Break Crytptography?
In the recent Signalgate scandal, several senior Trump administration appointees used the Signal app on their phones to discuss an attack on the Houthis. People...
From Computational Complexity
PDQ Shor (?-2025)
PDQ Shor PDQ Shor, Peter Shor's smarter brother, passed away last week. PDQ was a Physicist/Computer Scientist/Mathematician/Astrologer/Psychic at the University...
From Computational Complexity
What Happened to MOOCS?
In 2012 I wrote a blog post about the growing influence of Massively Open Online Courses, or MOOCs.John Hennessey, president of Stanford, gave the CRA keynote address...
From Computational Complexity
A Failure to Communicate
With care you can explain major ideas and results in computational complexity to the general public, like the P v NP problem, zero-knowledge proofs, the PCP theorem...
From Computational Complexity
Covid and Complexity
As we hit five years from when the world shut down, lots of discussions on how Covid has changed society. What about academia and computer science?It's a challenging...
From Computational Complexity
Taking a Stand
On February 20th we got the news from the National Science Foundation Algorithms Foundations Team that long-time NSF program director Tracy Kimbrel, was leaving...
From Computational Complexity
You Need Much Less Memory than Time
Just as I was complaining that we haven't seen many surprising breakthroughs in complexity recently, we get an earthquake of a result to start the year, showing...
From Computational Complexity
Tomorrow and Yesterday
I recently completed Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, a book recommended by many including the City of Chicago. The novel covers the decades...
From Computational Complexity
Research Then and Now
A student asked me if complexity research was easier when I was a student. Interesting question. Let's compare research now versus the late 80's.The big advantage...
From Computational Complexity
The Situation at the NSF
The National Science Foundation is one of the agencies most affected by the various executive orders issued by the Trump administration. As a critical funder of...
From Computational Complexity