Computing

How machines could learn creativity and common sense, among other human qualities

Scientific American's chief features editor Seth Fletcher talks about his book Einstein's Shadow, an account of the long effort to image a black hole that recently came to fruition.

AI and supercomputing are rapidly shifting the way disaster planners, regulators and insurers gauge climate hazards

Known for climate change work, the pioneer says global warming, AI and genetic engineering are self-inflicted threats to humanity

The science and art of password setting and cracking continues to evolve, as does the war between password users and abusers

Floods dump tons of pathogen-laden manure into U.S. waterways, often from hard-to-identify farms

NYU’s “Sounds of New York City” project listens to the city—and then, with the help of citizen scientists, teaches machines to decode the soundscape. Jim Daley reports. 

A personal journey to understand what lies beneath the startling powers of advanced neural networks

How to make sure noninvasive neural interfaces stay that way

It leads users down rabbit holes

We don't yet know what the immersion in technology does to our brains, but one neuroscientist says the answer is likely to be that there's good, there's bad, and it's complex.

Imagine a single trained operator making a bridge, home or barracks