Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM is the top print and digital magazine for the computing and information technology sectors. It is widely read by top professionals in the field around the globe and is known as a reliable and authoritative source of information for today’s computing experts.

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Communications of the ACM

1 week ago | cacm.acm.org | David Geer |Alex Williams |Sam Greengard

Cybercriminals are using artificial intelligence (AI) to create spear phishing attacks personalized against a specific individual. According to CNN, fraudsters recently used deepfake technology to fabricate a videoconference with a company’s CFO, convincing a Hong Kong finance worker to send them $25 million. Cybersecurity companies are countering with AI-enabled analysis of video data to detect deepfakes.
Quantum Computing’s Impact on Algorithmic Complexity

1 week ago | cacm.acm.org | Alex Williams |Sam Greengard |Chris Edwards

Quantum computing isn’t just some sci-fi concept anymore. It’s not theoretical. It’s not niche. It’s here—and it’s poised to gut the foundations of modern software development in ways few engineers are ready for. While headlines focus on broken encryption and Shor’s algorithm, the real upheaval runs much deeper. Quantum computing is quietly tearing apart our understanding of algorithmic complexity, leaving decades of optimization work and software architecture exposed.
Communications of the ACM

1 week ago | cacm.acm.org | Sam Greengard |Alex Williams |Chris Edwards

Throughout history, people have found ways to stay connected to loved ones who have died. They visit gravesites, tuck away personal belongings, create shrines, and sometimes perform elaborate rituals that involve food, song, and dance. Now, digital technology is altering the way people think about death—and how they process sorrow. A growing array of grief apps aim to deliver resources and support during difficult times.
Accepting AI’s Suggestions Is Harder When You Think

1 week ago | cacm.acm.org | Chris Edwards |Orit Hazzan |Micah Beck

The computer scientists of the 1960s had high hopes for the way humans and intelligent machines would work with each other. In separate essays that date back more than half a century, Joseph Licklider and Douglas Engelbart described situations where the humans and artificial intelligence (AI) would exchange ideas in insightful dialogues of the kind followed by ancient Greek philosophers. Some of that optimism has not gone away.
Automating Tools for Prompt Engineering

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | Sandrine Ceurstemont |Orit Hazzan |Micah Beck |Marc Rotenberg

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) started making waves a few years ago with the release of systems such as ChatGPT and DALL-E. They are able to produce sophisticated and human-like text, code, or images after the models powering them are trained on large quantities of data. However, it soon became apparent that the specific phrasing of a question or statement input by a user, known as a prompt, had an impact on the quality of the resulting output.
Communications of the ACM

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | Marc Rotenberg |David Geer |R. Colin Johnson

Several years ago, I compiled the first reference book on AI policies.1 I aimed to provide a ready reference for the emerging field of artificial intelligence similar to the books I had published on privacy law.2 At that time, we noted the rapid explosion of AI ethics frameworks, but it was still early days for AI governance. The OECD had just finalized the first AI principles endorsed by national governments.
In Large Language Models We Trust?

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | Peter J Denning |David Geer |R. Colin Johnson |Carlos Baquero

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.” These words were spoken by the political scientist and philosopher Hannah Arendt in 1974. She was discussing how totalitarian governments, through their propaganda, might induce such wide cynicism that people lose faith in the truth.
Behind the Bybit Crypto Theft

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | David Geer |R. Colin Johnson |Carlos Baquero

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures U.S. personal bank deposits up to $250,000. When the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in 2023, the FDIC protected consumers and their money. Cryptocurrency has no similar protection. If criminals steal your crypto, you may not get it back. On February 21, 2025, thieves stole $1.46 billion of Ethereum (ETH) using a Dubai-based Bybit cryptocurrency exchange wallet. Major news reports called it the largest cryptocurrency theft ever.
Exascale Supercomputers Tracking Down Dark Matter, Dark Energy

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | R. Colin Johnson |Carlos Baquero |Doug Meil

U.S. National Laboratories (Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, and Oak Ridge) possess three of the world’s fastest exascale supercomputers (as of the November 2024 Top500 ranking), which are capable of performing one quintillion (a billion billion) operations per second. One of the highest priorities (among many) for these supercomputers is mapping and characterizing the 95% of the universe that is unseen but inferred to be there—namely, dark matter (~27%) and dark energy (~68%).
Communications of the ACM

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | Carlos Baquero |R. Colin Johnson |Doug Meil

Imagine you have a paper list of your monthly expenses and want to find the total. A skilled comptometer (mechanical calculator) operator could perform this calculation much faster than is possible today. The reason lies in the input method and the operator’s skill. Entering numbers on a numeric keypad is a slow process, which is why barcodes and RFIDs are commonly used in shops these days. Comptometers allow pressing multiple keys simultaneously using different fingers.