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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.

October 2018


From ACM TechNews

Amazon Scraps Secret AI Recruiting Tool That Showed Bias Against Women

Amazon Scraps Secret AI Recruiting Tool That Showed Bias Against Women

Amazon discontinued an artificial intelligence recruiting tool its machine learning specialists developed to automate the hiring process because it was biased against women.


From ACM News

The Ick of AI That Impersonates Humans

The Ick of AI That Impersonates Humans

Philip K. Dick was living a few miles north of San Francisco when he wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which envisioned a world where artificially intelligent androids are indistinguishable from humans.


From ACM News

All Eyes on Hurricane Michael

All Eyes on Hurricane Michael

Hurricane Michael plowed into the Florida panhandle Wednesday, Oct. 10, as a major Category 4 storm—the strongest hurricane ever to hit that region.


From ACM TechNews

Google, Facebook Team ­p on Artificial Intelligence Tech

Google, Facebook Team ­p on Artificial Intelligence Tech

Google and Facebook researchers are working together to make Facebook's open source PyTorch framework interoperate with Google's custom machine learning chips.


From ACM TechNews

What You Can't See Can Hurt You

What You Can't See Can Hurt You

Researchers have found homeowners will significantly alter their behavior to improve the air quality in their homes if presented with visualizations of how it changes.


From ACM TechNews

A New Molecular Programming Language: CRN++

A New Molecular Programming Language: CRN++

Researchers have created a new language for programming deterministic chemical kinetics in performing computations.


From ACM TechNews

Researchers Develop Novel Technique to Locate Robots, Soldiers in GPS-Challenged Environments

Researchers Develop Novel Technique to Locate Robots, Soldiers in GPS-Challenged Environments

Scientists have developed an algorithm that enables localization of humans and robots in areas where global positioning systems are unavailable.


From ACM News

Painting Cars for Mars

Painting Cars for Mars

When John Campanella's friend wanted his beloved Ferrari painted, he knew exactly who to call.


From ACM News

Turbulence, the Oldest ­nsolved Problem in Physics

Turbulence, the Oldest ­nsolved Problem in Physics

Werner Heisenberg won the 1932 Nobel Prize for helping to found the field of quantum mechanics and developing foundational ideas like the Copenhagen interpretation and the uncertainty principle.


From ACM News

Graduate Student Solves Quantum Verification Problem

Graduate Student Solves Quantum Verification Problem

Urmila Mahadev spent eight years in graduate school solving one of the most basic questions in quantum computation.


From ACM News

­S Weapons Systems Are Easy Cyberattack Targets, New Report Finds

­S Weapons Systems Are Easy Cyberattack Targets, New Report Finds

The first step in solving any problem is admitting there is one. But a new report from the US Government Accountability Office finds that the Department of Defense remains in denial about cybersecurity threats to its weapons …


From ACM News

Tech Gives Bike Riders Some Spin

Tech Gives Bike Riders Some Spin

Apps and connectivity have improved bicycles for serious and casual riders.


From ACM News

Researchers ­nveil Tool to Track Disinformation on Social Media

Researchers ­nveil Tool to Track Disinformation on Social Media

Researchers released a new tool Wednesday to track how many stories posted on social media are coming from sources known to publish disinformation.


From ACM TechNews

A Google Intern Built the AI Behind These Shockingly Good Fake Images

A Google Intern Built the AI Behind These Shockingly Good Fake Images

Google researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system that generates incredibly realistic fake images.


From ACM TechNews

Heat-Seeking Drones Find Brisbane's Hiding Koalas

Heat-Seeking Drones Find Brisbane's Hiding Koalas

Researchers  in Australia are using drones with heat-seeking sensors to tally Brisbane's koala population in spite of concealing foliage.


From ACM TechNews

Sound Software for Fault Detection in Machinery

Sound Software for Fault Detection in Machinery

A European Union-funded research project has developed software that can analyze the sounds of industrial machinery to determine if they require maintenance.


From ACM TechNews

Voting Experts: Why the Heck Are People Still Voting Online?

Voting Experts: Why the Heck Are People Still Voting Online?

A new study calls online ballots a key weakness in the securing of U.S. election systems, and estimates at least 100,000 Americans cast online ballots in the 2016 Presidential election.


From ACM TechNews

Social Media Data ­sed to Predict Retail Failure

Social Media Data ­sed to Predict Retail Failure

An international team of researchers has developed a model that can predict with 80% accuracy whether a new business will fail within six months.


From ACM TechNews

Cardiff ­niversity's New X-Ray Method Reveals Ancient Scroll

Cardiff ­niversity's New X-Ray Method Reveals Ancient Scroll

Researchers have developed an x-ray tomography technique to reveal hidden text inside damaged and unreadable scrolls.


From ACM News

How Russian Spies Infiltrated Hotel Wi-Fi to Hack Victims ­p Close

How Russian Spies Infiltrated Hotel Wi-Fi to Hack Victims ­p Close

For years, the Kremlin's increasingly aggressive hackers have reached across the globe to hit targets with everything from simple phishing schemes to worms built from leaked NSA zero day vulnerabilities.


From ACM Careers

China Makes A Big Play In Silicon Valley

China Makes A Big Play In Silicon Valley

A year ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping stood before the 19th Communist Party Congress and laid out his ambitious plan for China to become a world leader by 2025 in advanced technologies such as robotics, biotechnology and artificial…


From ACM TechNews

Machine Learning Helps Improving Photonic Applications

Machine Learning Helps Improving Photonic Applications

Researchers in Germany used computer models and machine learning to demonstrate how the design of photonic nanostructures can be selectively optimized.


From ACM TechNews

NT­ Singapore Scientists Develop Smart Technology for Synchronized 3D Printing of Concrete

NT­ Singapore Scientists Develop Smart Technology for Synchronized 3D Printing of Concrete

Researchers have developed a technology for synchronized, robotic three-dimensional printing of concrete.


From ACM News

I Like the Way You Walk

I Like the Way You Walk

Artificial intelligence video system sends smartphone messages based on how you move.


From ACM News

Curiosity Rover to Temporarily Switch 'Brains'

Curiosity Rover to Temporarily Switch 'Brains'

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, this week commanded the agency's Curiosity rover to switch to its second computer.


From ACM News

'Quantum Atmospheres' May Reveal Secrets of Matter

'Quantum Atmospheres' May Reveal Secrets of Matter

Over the past several years, some materials have proved to be a playground for physicists.


From ACM TechNews

Smartphone With a Finger Crawls Across the Table to Stroke Your Wrist

Smartphone With a Finger Crawls Across the Table to Stroke Your Wrist

MobiLimb is a realistic-looking mechanical finger that plugs into the USB port of a mobile device as an additional way to interact with a smartphone or tablet.


From ACM TechNews

This Tech Would Have Spotted the Secret Chinese Chip in Seconds

This Tech Would Have Spotted the Secret Chinese Chip in Seconds

Researchers have developed a semiautomated system that could have identified in seconds malicious chips reportedly inserted into computer systems by the Chinese government.


From ACM TechNews

Researchers Raise Alarm Over ­se of AI in Immigration, Refugee Decision-Making

Researchers Raise Alarm Over ­se of AI in Immigration, Refugee Decision-Making

Researchers in Canada are concerned about government initiatives to replace human decision-making with artificial intelligence regarding immigrants' human rights.


From ACM TechNews

This App Knows When You've Been in an Accident—and Then It Calls 911 for You

This App Knows When You've Been in an Accident—and Then It Calls 911 for You

A new mobile application accesses a smartphone's sensors to determine if the phone's owner has been in an auto accident, and can alert 911 emergency services if needed.