ACM Ubiquity Magazine

04/23/2026

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that conversational AI is untrustworthy. Based on the demonstration that AI hallucinates, produces deceptive behaviors, and self-poisons/self-pollutes its originating model.

Conversational AI systems—aka chatbots—are not reliable, not secure, and not safe.

03/31/2026

"Collective Intelligence Versus Corporate Monopoly: The future of AI in healthcare" https://buff.ly/CROoRtC

As AI revolutionizes healthcare, a crucial debate is emerging: Should AI development be driven by tech giants or by collective intelligence? This article discusses the strengths and limitations of both approaches, analyzing real-world cases and future scenarios. The investigation encompasses technical, ethical, and practical implications of different AI development models in healthcare, drawing insights from initiatives like Google's Med-PaLM 2 and the MIMIC database. A balanced path integrating corporate innovation with open-source collaboration, supported by thoughtful regulation, may offer a promising way to develop AI systems that are technologically advanced, ethical, and equitable. The integrated approach could help address diverse needs in global healthcare while maintaining high standards of innovation and accessibility.

03/26/2026

"How to Recognize and Target Your Audience's Point of View." https://buff.ly/Fzb2Pjx
The classic advice on how to influence people through expository (non-fiction) writing and speaking is: Approach your subject from your audience's point of view. However, modifying the audience's point of view is not limited only to what you write and say. Here are a few examples to demonstrate how exploiting this essential approach to communication can produce dramatic results in addition to writing and speaking.

03/05/2026

A Conversation with Asif Ali Khan: From the von Neumann Bottleneck to Memory-Centric Computing https://buff.ly/QxlT0hD
In this interview, Dr.-Ing. Asif Ali Khan speaks with Ubiquity senior editor Dr. Bushra Anjum about computing-in-memory (CIM), a promising paradigm that enables memory devices to perform computation in addition to their primary functionality of data storage. CIM has the potential to revolutionize the future of computing system design, making systems not only more scalable but also significantly more energy efficient and sustainable. However, there are numerous challenges that must be addressed before this architecture can be widely adopted, which require interdisciplinary efforts across device technology, architecture, system software, and the compiler communities.

03/04/2026

"Demystifying Machine Learning in Artificial Intelligence" https://buff.ly/H9RFgHe
The general idea behind machine learning is that, instead of people writing programs to extract information from data, machines extract information by learning from examples. However, an open problem is that many machine learning systems are black box classifiers and cannot explain their decisions or recommendations. As such, their use may be unethical or even illegal in some jurisdictions.

02/23/2026

New from Phil Yaffe—"First Draft, Final Draft: An example is worth a thousand words." https://buff.ly/FAvcDQR
Most people believe writing good expository text takes place in two stages: 1) the first draft, and 2) the final draft. But forget the final draft must ensure that the information of the first draft is as easy as possible for the reader to understand, assimilate, and retain.

01/30/2026

Communication Corner No. 73: "How to Speak and Write about Science for Non-Scientists" https://buff.ly/j4QUqKr

Used correctly, words shed light and generate interest and understanding. Used incorrectly, they confuse and generate mistrust and even animosity. This is particularly true in K-12 STEM education. But it doesn't need to be this way. In fact, it can be reversed.

01/29/2026

John L. Gustafson returns with part 2 of the fascinating story of computer numbers. https://buff.ly/GOiVuX2

After decades of the IEEE standard for floating-point format, the industry is now in a state of flux again, with many different formats being proposed, especially for efficient machine learning and inference workloads. The posit format has significant advantages over the IEEE standard, and it may become the new standard for representing real numbers.

Read more in "A Brief History of Computing with Real Numbers, Part 2: A Revolutionary New Approach"

12/03/2025

"Driverless Vehicles: A Case Study in Applied Artificial Intelligence" presents lessons for engineering AI systems to eventually operate fully autonomous vehicles. https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=3777393

In this latest installment of the "ACM Ubiquity Symposium on Artificial Intelligence," the authors discuss the limitations of AI in driverless vehicles. Understanding this can lead to successful systems, while not understanding it has led to expensive failures.

12/02/2025

John Gustafson is the inventor of posits—a superior way to represent numbers in binary. In this two-part article, Gustafson surveys the history of machine number representations. "A Brief History of Computing with Real Numbers, Part 1" is the fascinating story of computer numbers. https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=3777394

11/03/2025

https://buff.ly/SzoO5R4 "Some Underestimated Benefits of the Cryptocurrency Mania" by Andrew Odlyzko

Cryptocurrencies have given rise to extreme excitement and controversy. There is a continuing debate on whether they will flourish or disappear. This essay argues that an even more interesting and important issue involves the implications of the cryptocurrency mania for the evolution of our society. What matters about cryptocurrencies and related subjects, such as blockchain, is not really their technology. That technology is neither novel nor revolutionary. The key factors are trust and crowd psychology, which are driving us toward the post-truth world in which groupthink helps create "alternate realities." The cryptocurrency scene provides insight into these developments, which are consistent with those in many related areas, such as the growth of disinformation, deepfakes, and AI.

10/30/2025

"The Rise of the Intelligent Enterprise: Twenty years later" https://buff.ly/sHFSos4
Kemal A. Delic of The Open University and Umeshwar Dayal of Hitachi America update their prediction of the emergence of Intelligent Enterprises, which will spawn a digital economy, impact societal structure and behaviors, and mark the beginning of the sixth technology epoch, dominated by the spread of cognitive systems—specifically AI-augmented tools and systems.