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Communications of the ACM

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

June 2020


From ACM TechNews

Facebook's TransCoder AI Converts Code From One Programming Language Into Another

Facebook's TransCoder AI Converts Code From One Programming Language Into Another

Facebook says its TransCoder can convert code from one high-level programming language into another.


From ACM TechNews

Billions of Smart Home Devices Open to Attack

Billions of Smart Home Devices Open to Attack

A newly discovered vulnerability in the Universal Plug and Play networking protocol could expose billions of smart home devices to cyberattack.


From ACM News

Access Denied: Faulty Automated Background Checks Freeze Out Renters

Access Denied: Faulty Automated Background Checks Freeze Out Renters

Computer algorithms that scan everything from terror watch lists to eviction records spit out flawed tenant screening reports. And almost nobody is watching.


From ACM News

Microsoft Bans Police Face Recognition Sales as Big Tech Reacts to Protests

Microsoft Bans Police Face Recognition Sales as Big Tech Reacts to Protests

The announcement came a day after rival Amazon.com declared it was pausing police use of its "Rekognition" service for a year.


From ACM TechNews

Younger People, Users of Niche Social Media Platforms More Likely to Share Covid-19 Disinformation

Younger People, Users of Niche Social Media Platforms More Likely to Share Covid-19 Disinformation

More than half of respondents to the study who shared disinformation were 39 or younger.


From ACM TechNews

Pandemic to Jumpstart Spending on Data Tools at Manufacturers

Pandemic to Jumpstart Spending on Data Tools at Manufacturers

Chief information officers predict manufacturers will spend more on data management and analytics tools following the coronavirus pandemic.


From ACM TechNews

U.S. Voting Data from Millions of People is Being Traded on the Dark Web

U.S. Voting Data from Millions of People is Being Traded on the Dark Web

Researchers have found that data on millions of U.S. voters is being illegally traded on parts of the Internet not searchable using normal means.


From ACM TechNews

The Extraordinary Sample-Gathering System of NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

The Extraordinary Sample-Gathering System of NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will launch the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission on July 17.


From ACM News

AI vs. AI

AI vs. AI

Financial institutions use AI to create "synthetic identities" for customers; hackers use 'bad' AI to fool the 'good' AI.


From ACM News

Untold History of AI: Algorithmic Bias Was Born in the 1980s

Untold History of AI: Algorithmic Bias Was Born in the 1980s

A medical school thought a computer program would make the admissions process fairer—but it did just the opposite.


From ACM News

For a Day, Scientists Pause Science to Confront Racism

For a Day, Scientists Pause Science to Confront Racism

Scholars said they would not hold classes or lectures on Wednesday, and leading journals and scientific associations said they would not announce most breakthroughs.


From ACM News

Amazon Pauses Police Use of Its Facial Recognition Software

Amazon Pauses Police Use of Its Facial Recognition Software

The company said it hoped the moratorium "might give Congress enough time to put in place appropriate rules" for the technology.


From ACM TechNews

Engineers Put Tens of Thousands of Artificial Brain Synapses on a Single Chip

Engineers Put Tens of Thousands of Artificial Brain Synapses on a Single Chip

Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers have designed a 'brain on a chip' composed of tens of thousands of memristors.


From ACM TechNews

With an Internet of Animals, Scientists Aim to Track, Save Wildlife

With an Internet of Animals, Scientists Aim to Track, Save Wildlife

Sensors and other equipment aboard the International Space Station will be used to monitor wildlife, revolutionizing animal tracking.


From ACM TechNews

NYU Report Calls On Social Media Titans to Stop Outsourcing Content Moderation

NYU Report Calls On Social Media Titans to Stop Outsourcing Content Moderation

A New York University report urges social media companies to stop outsourcing the moderation of their content.


From ACM TechNews

Stanford Lab Envisions Delivery Drones That Save Energy by Taking the Bus

Stanford Lab Envisions Delivery Drones That Save Energy by Taking the Bus

Stanford University researchers have developed a methodology that allows delivery drones to take the bus.


From ACM TechNews

People with Damaged Knees, Hips Could Be Treated with 3D-Printed Artificial Cartilage

People with Damaged Knees, Hips Could Be Treated with 3D-Printed Artificial Cartilage

University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) scientists three-dimensionally (3D)-printed artificial cartilage.


From ACM News

A U.S. Secret Weapon in A.I.: Chinese Talent

A U.S. Secret Weapon in A.I.: Chinese Talent

New research shows scientists educated in China help American firms and schools dominate the cutting-edge field. Now industry leaders worry that worsening political tensions will blunt that edge.


From ACM News

Manned Fighter to Face Autonomous Drone Next Year in Movie-Like Showdown

Manned Fighter to Face Autonomous Drone Next Year in Movie-Like Showdown

The planned test is part of a project to develop an artificial intelligence-driven drone that could change the face of air combat.


From ACM News

Don’t Kid Yourself: Online Lectures Are Here to Stay

Don’t Kid Yourself: Online Lectures Are Here to Stay

The economic forces are too powerful for virtual instruction to go away after the pandemic. The important question is who will benefit financially, a Cornell economist says.


From ACM TechNews

Hello and Welcome: Robot Waiters to the Rescue Amid Virus

Hello and Welcome: Robot Waiters to the Rescue Amid Virus

Some restaurants in the Netherlands preparing to reopen in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic are planning to use robot waiters.


From ACM TechNews

Evidence Suggests The U.S. Loses Hundreds of Billions to Cybercrime

Evidence Suggests The U.S. Loses Hundreds of Billions to Cybercrime

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates 2016 losses due to cybercrime exceeded $160 billion.


From ACM TechNews

Training Agents to Walk with Purpose

Training Agents to Walk with Purpose

A new classification algorithm for relational data is more accurate and orders of magnitude more efficient than previous methods.


From ACM News

Evolutionary Algorithm Spawns ‘Living Robots’ from Frog Cells

Evolutionary Algorithm Spawns ‘Living Robots’ from Frog Cells

When an evolutionary algorithm generates a successful robot design, the next step is usually to manufacture a physical robot from metals or plastics. Now, researchers are using living cells.


From ACM News

IBM Will No Longer Offer, Develop, or Research Facial Recognition Technology

IBM Will No Longer Offer, Develop, or Research Facial Recognition Technology

IBM's CEO says we should reevaluate selling the technology to law enforcement.


From ACM News

Self-driving Cars Could only Prevent a Third of U.S. Crashes: Study

Self-driving Cars Could only Prevent a Third of U.S. Crashes: Study

Traffic experts say nine in 10 crashes result from human error, and more than 36,000 people died in U.S. car crashes last year.


From ACM News

NYU Report Calls on Social Media Titans to Stop Outsourcing Content Moderation

NYU Report Calls on Social Media Titans to Stop Outsourcing Content Moderation

The report says big social media companies need to use more of their own employees to make calls about which posts and photos should be removed.


From ACM TechNews

A Robot Walks Into a Bar, Helps Make a Cocktail

A Robot Walks Into a Bar, Helps Make a Cocktail

Robo-bartenders are part of South Korea's cafe and bar scene as the country moves toward "distancing in daily life" amid the coronavirus pandemic.


From ACM TechNews

Penn State Researchers Evaluate 2020 Census Data Privacy Changes

Penn State Researchers Evaluate 2020 Census Data Privacy Changes

The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed using differential privacy as a new method to protect the identities of individuals when publishing public data.


From ACM TechNews

Underwater Drones Join Hunt for Trillions in Mineral Riches Trapped on Ocean's Floor

Underwater Drones Join Hunt for Trillions in Mineral Riches Trapped on Ocean's Floor

The nascent seabed mining industry is using underwater drones to map the ocean floor in the hunt for precious minerals worth trillions.