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Don't Be Fooled by Fake Images and Videos Online
From ACM Opinion

Don't Be Fooled by Fake Images and Videos Online

One month before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an "Access Hollywood" recording of Donald Trump was released in which he was heard lewdly talking about women...

AI's Big Challenge
From ACM Opinion

AI's Big Challenge

The recently signed executive order establishing the American AI Initiative correctly identifies artificial intelligence as central to American competitiveness...

Why Scientists Sometimes Make Extraordinary Claims
From ACM Opinion

Why Scientists Sometimes Make Extraordinary Claims

The interstellar object known as 'Oumuamua plunged into our solar system in 2017, leaving a trail of mystery in its wake.

Don't Fight the Robots. Tax Them.
From ACM Opinion

Don't Fight the Robots. Tax Them.

When Bill Gates floated the idea of imposing a tax on robots a couple of years ago, Lawrence Summers, a former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, called...

Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question
From ACM Opinion

Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question

When Norbert Wiener, the father ofcybernetics, wrote his book The Human Use of Human Beings in 1950, vacuum tubes were still the primary electronic building blocks...

China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market, and the ­S Has No Plan
From ACM Opinion

China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market, and the ­S Has No Plan

You may have heard that China has cornered much of the world's supply of strategic metals and minerals crucial for new technology, including lithium, rare earths...

An Intrepid Explorer of Mars Falls Silent
From ACM Opinion

An Intrepid Explorer of Mars Falls Silent

Opportunity, formally known as Mars Exploration Rover B but as Oppy to its many friends and admirers, was pronounced dead on Wednesday after a final round of beamed...

Be Kind to Extraterrestrials
From ACM Opinion

Be Kind to Extraterrestrials

In his celebrated book On Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau wrote: "We need the tonic of wildness.... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all...

Electronic Contracts and the Illusion of Consent
From ACM Opinion

Electronic Contracts and the Illusion of Consent

Q: What do you do when you see a little button on a webpage or app screen that says I agree?

The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know
From ACM Opinion

The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know

A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills...

What Trump's Executive Order on AI Is Missing
From ACM Opinion

What Trump's Executive Order on AI Is Missing

President Trump signed an executive order on February 11 meant to shore up our competitive position in the international race for AI supremacy, but it is short...

This Is Why AI Has Yet to Reshape Most Businesses
From ACM Opinion

This Is Why AI Has Yet to Reshape Most Businesses

The art of making perfumes and colognes hasn't changed much since the 1880s, when synthetic ingredients began to be used.

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...

Can Subscriptions Save All Media Companies, or Just the New York Times?
From ACM Opinion

Can Subscriptions Save All Media Companies, or Just the New York Times?

It's hard not to feel some whiplash when reading news about the media business these days.

There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology
From ACM Opinion

There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology

In his 2008 white paper that first proposed bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto concluded with: "We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without...

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...

Trump Pledges Investment, But Is Silent on Key Tech Issues
From ACM Opinion

Trump Pledges Investment, But Is Silent on Key Tech Issues

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Trump promised legislation to invest in "the cutting edge industries of the future." But the speech was characteristically...

People Don't Trust Blockchain Systems. Is Regulation a Way to Help?
From ACM Opinion

People Don't Trust Blockchain Systems. Is Regulation a Way to Help?

Blockchain technology isn't as widely used as it could be, largely because blockchain users don't trust each other, as research shows.

How to Land a Journal Cover
From ACM Opinion

How to Land a Journal Cover

Researchers: Felice Frankel will make photographers of you all. Photography—both macro- and microscopic—is an essential tool in science, because pictures are both...
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