Vinton Cerf

Washington, D.C., United States

Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Vint Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet.

Articles

Communications of the ACM

1 month ago | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |Sam Greengard |Karen Emslie |David Geer

As all readers of this essay know, I am not in any way expert in machine learning (ML) and large language models (LLMs), so my descriptions and observations are, at best, lightweight cartoons of what is actually going on. Please keep this in mind as you read this.
Building Safer and Interoperable AI Systems

Jan 20, 2025 | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |Sam Greengard |Orit Hazzan

While I am no expert on artificial intelligence (AI), I have some experience with the concept of agents. Thirty-five years ago, my colleague, Robert Kahn, and I explored the idea of knowledge robots (“knowbots” for short)a in the context of digital libraries. In principle, a knowbot was a mobile piece of code that could move around the Internet, landing at servers, where they could execute tasks on behalf of users.
Communications of the ACM

Jan 20, 2025 | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |Geraldine Fitzpatrick |Alex Williams |Sam Greengard

It simply is not appropriate to write code that will be connected to the Internet in an unsafe language such as C.
Communications of the ACM

Nov 22, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |R. Colin Johnson |Mark Halper |Karen Emslie

As I write this at the end of October 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be Topic A in many discussions. So too are recommendation algorithms in social media. Misinformation and disinformation rank high across many areas of socio-economic concerns. We are even seeing misinformation about the Federal response to severe storms interfering with our ability to render aid. Why is it that we are attracted to and respond so readily to alarming information?
Communications of the ACM

Nov 15, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Yannis Ioannidis |Vinton Cerf |Wei Lu |Tom Lambert

We could use some technical help as we wrestle to assess the provenance of the information we encounter.
The Global Digital Compact

Sep 4, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |Alex Williams |Saurabh Bagchi |David Geer

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has initiated many efforts related to software and networking. High-level panels, as well as a Tech Envoy’s office, have been established to further assess the critical nature of software and digital technology in our 21st century. As I write this in late August 2024, a Summit for the Future on September 22-23 lies in my future.
August 2024 – Communications of the ACM | Flipboard

Aug 31, 2024 | flipboard.com | Vinton Cerf

Opinion Jul 25 2024 Universities should collaborate with industry, government, and community organizations on activities to promote the socially …
Communications of the ACM

Jul 23, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |R. Colin Johnson

Among the most challenging and satisfying of human endeavors is to push the limits of knowledge beyond the known boundaries. I call those who pursue these objectives the “boundary hunters.” Who are these people who go where no one has gone before? They are the scientists, the researchers, the engineers, the theoreticians, and the explorers who wonder what might lie beyond what we think we know and understand. They go past the familiar into terra incognita.
Protecting scientific integrity in an age of generative AI | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

May 21, 2024 | pnas.org | Wolfgang Blau |Vinton Cerf |Juan Enriquez |Joseph S. Francisco

Protecting scientific integrity in an age of generative AIWolfgang Blau, Vinton G. Cerf, Juan Enriquez, +20 , Joseph S. Francisco https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5461-1486, Urs Gasser, Mary L. Gray, Mark Greaves, Barbara J. Grosz, Kathleen Hall Jamieson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4167-3688, Gerald H. Haug https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7534-4420, John L. Hennessy, Eric Horvitz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8823-0614, David I.
On the Difference between Security and Safety

May 10, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Vinton Cerf |Doug Meil |Sandrine Ceurstemont |Alex Williams

A great deal of attention has been paid to the security of the Internet and World Wide Web. Great scrutiny has been given to open source libraries, operating systems, protocol implementations, and other software artifacts. Attention has also been paid to hardware, side-channel attacks, supply-chain attacks, malware, ransomware, denial-of-service, and all manner of other types of attacks. Zero Day bugs are sometimes hoarded and kept secret for later use.