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AI war games almost always escalate to nuclear strikes, simulation shows A new study reveals that AI decision-making during conflicts is naturally prone to escalation. Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Defense and intelligence agencies are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) systems to augment their capabilities, including for pattern recognition in intelligence gathering and scenario planning for contingency operations. Yet one of the core issues of AI and large language models is that we have never truly understood the logic underpinning them, scientists say. These systems have been compared to a black box that provides answers without showing the reasoning to support the outcomes. To understand the logic of AI systems, Kenneth Payne, a professor of strategy at King's College London, designed a series of war gaming simulations between two competing AIs and found that in nearly every scenario, nuclear escalation was unavoidable. He published his findings, which have not been peer-reviewed, Feb. 16 in the arXiv preprint database. The experiment used a series of two-way tournaments of the Khan Game, in which Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3 Flash competed in a series of simulated nuclear crises. The Khan Game is an AI-vs-AI strategic escalation simulation between two nuclear powers, with state profiles loosely based on the Cold War. One is technologically superior but militarily weaker, while the other is militarily stronger but adopts a risk-tolerant leadership style. Some of the simulations included allied nations, with one scenario deliberately testing whether an alliance leadership could be maintained during the conflict. Each turn, the AIs simultaneously signaled their intentions before they
Dr. Vivek Lall, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the chief executive of General Atomics Global Corp. He participates in Hoover’s Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations. Dr. Haibo Huang is the director of the Center of Excellence in Advanced Diagnostics at General Atomics. The 2025 Nobel Prize in physics celebrated the discovery that engineerable electric circuits could possess quantum-mechanical properties similar to those of single particles of matter or light. This breakthrough from the mid-1980s launched today’s intense worldwide race for “quantum advantage”: the ability to perform tasks with capabilities leapfrogging current technology. Yet amid the fervor surrounding quantum computing, with its promise of revolutionary code-breaking and drug discovery capabilities, America risks overlooking a more immediate opportunity: quantum sensing. While quantum computers remain years or decades from practical deployment, quantum sensors are ready today. The nation that leads in this technology will gain decisive advantages in navigation, communications, resource exploration, and national defense. The power of “noise” The physics underpinning quantum sensing poses an irony. To achieve quantum computing, researchers must overcome environmental “noise”: tiny perturbations that destroy quantum states. Practical quantum computers need to cope with these errors— they need to increase in scale and complexity that exceed today’s capabilities. Quantum sensors turn this challenge on its head. The same environmental sensitivity that plagues quantum computers becomes the quantum sensors’ greatest strength. These devices exploit quantum mechanics to detect infinitesimally small variations in magnetic fields, gravitational forces, electromagnetic waves, and other signals. A single quantum sensor can outperform its classical counterpart. No error correction is required and no increase in complexity is called for. This fundamental difference in technological maturity should reshape our national quantum strategy. But recent analysis shows that less than 10 percent of private investment in quantum technology flows into quantum sensing,
Newswise — Quantum computers may one day enable revolutionary advances in fluid dynamics, drug discovery, development of better agricultural fertilizers, improved materials design and other technical areas that are beyond the capabilities of today’s conventional computers. To reach those goals, companies from around the world are pursuing a variety of approaches aimed at developing large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers. The approaches of over a dozen quantum computing companies are now being evaluated through the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), a project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the agency, QBI “aims to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation – meaning its computational value exceeds its cost – by the year 2033.” Supporting the effort, a 40-person interdisciplinary research team from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has joined the test and evaluation component of QBI, providing unbiased subject-matter experts to work with 13 other research organizations in evaluating the R&D plans of participating quantum computer companies. Through this collaboration, the GTRI team is working with more than 400 other thirted-party experts on the project.
- Google research claims quantum computers could crack Bitcoin keys within nine minutes. - AI models agree threat exists, but differ on timeline, urgency, and Bitcoin upgrade feasibility. - Experts say Bitcoin can adapt, yet slow governance could delay quantum-resistant security implementation. Quantum computing just became Bitcoin’s most talked-about threat in 2026, after Google dropped a paper claiming a future quantum machine could crack a Bitcoin private key in just nine minutes. Meanwhile, five leading AI models, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Grok, all weigh in, and their answers are more different than you’d expect. What Is the Quantum Threat to Bitcoin? The conversation exploded after Google’s Quantum AI team published a research paper in late March 2026, warning that breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography may require far fewer resources than previously thought. Google researchers estimated that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could crack a Bitcoin private key in roughly nine minutes once a public key is exposed, putting approximately 6.9 million already exposed Bitcoin at heightened risk. At the heart of the concern is something called Elliptic Curve Cryptography or ECC, the mathematical foundation that keeps Bitcoin wallets secure. A powerful quantum computer using Shor’s algorithm could break it, exposing private keys. Older Bitcoin addresses are most at risk because their public keys are already visible on-chain. ChatGPT: Real & Time-Sensitive Risk ChatGPT doesn’t sugarcoat the risk. It describes quantum computing as a real and time-sensitive challenge for blockchains using elliptic-curve cryptography, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, as quantum research continues to advance. When asked about a possible 2028 threat, ChatGPT said the timeline is uncertain but not unrealistic. The bigger concern isn’t a sudden breakthrough, but the industry failing to adopt quantum-resistant cryptography fast enough. It also highlights a governance challenge, Bitcoin’s decentralized structure makes rapid upgrades harder compared to more
'RIP QC FUD': Samson Mow Reacts to Emerging Bitcoin Quantum Defenses JAN3 CEO Samson Mow has dismissed concerns regarding quantum computer threats to cryptocurrency assets, particularly Bitcoin BTCUSD. In a quote from a paper proposing Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB), Mow noted that Bitcoin’s defenses against "non-existent quantum computers" have scaled at a staggering pace. Samson Mow highlights quantum-resistant Bitcoin solutions For clarity, some Bitcoin critics have been spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about the leading cryptocurrency. They claim that when powerful quantum computers arrive, they could crack the cryptography used in safeguarding Bitcoin’s transactions. Specifically, the ECDSA signatures of Bitcoin are of concern, with fears linked to Shor’s algorithm. In theory, quantum computers can break certain encryption methods. However, Mow has assured Bitcoin holders that even with quantum computers not yet in existence, the community is not idle. This is because while critics are spreading FUD about quantum computers destroying Bitcoin, researchers are already building strong defenses faster than the threat is developing. Samson Mow@ExcellionBitcoin defenses against non-existent quantum computers is moving along at an incredibly fast pace. There’s also the prototype from @roasbeef too. RIP QC FUD. 🪦 https://t.co/6QWBoi2COt Mow referenced various research including the QSB paper, which creates quantum-resistant transactions via a hash-to-signature puzzle. Notably, this relies on RIPEMD-160 preimage resistance instead of ECDSA. Additionally, the JAN3 CEO said the prototype released by Lighting Labs CTO Olaoluwa "Roasbeef" Osuntokun also protects Bitcoin from quantum computers. This prototype uses zk-STARK proofs to enable wallet recovery for BIP-32-derived keys in case of an emergency that might lock users out of their funds. He is suggesting that if quantum computers become a real threat someday, solutions are already being developed. "RIP QC FUD," he stated. In October 2025, the head of Capriole Investments, Charles Edwards, sounded the alarm that quantum
HPE accelerates quantum readiness ahead of Q-day Enterprise tech is already preparing for “Q-day” — when quantum computing will be able to break today’s public-key cryptography. Although that date is still years away, staying ahead of the curve is a necessity if companies want to secure their infrastructure and incorporate quantum into the existing artificial intelligence and high-performance computing stack. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. has become a key player in readying the industry for quantum, leading initiatives that accelerate quantum computing innovation while also navigating how quantum can work alongside HPE’s traditional supercomputers. “The company’s strategy is to advance supercomputer/quantum computer coexistence, understanding that quantum technology is unlikely to be used in many standalone instances in the foreseeable future,” said SiliconANGLE Media and theCUBE’s Paul Gillin. “In short, HPE believes that the growth of quantum technology will have a direct and positive impact on its supercomputer sales.” At the upcoming HPE World Quantum Day event on April 14, viewers can gain insight into HPE’s strategy for a quantum-based future from industry experts. The event will serve as a broader reflection of the emerging quantum market, which is moving from theoretical frameworks to ground-level startups. This feature is part of SiliconANGLE Media’s exploration of the convergence of quantum, AI and high-performance computing. Be sure to check out SiliconANGLE’s extensive coverage of HPE World Quantum Day, including interviews with HPE executives, quantum computing experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other leading industry leaders. (* Disclosure below.) The state of the quantum computing market Quantum is predicted to become a major industry when the tech catches up with the theory. The three pillars of quantum technology — quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum compute — could generate up to $97 billion in revenue worldwide by 2035, according to McKinsey & Co. Quantum
Quantum computing is often framed as a distant breakthrough: powerful, transformative — and perpetually just over the horizon. That’s misleading. Quantum is already shaping security, communications, and infrastructure. By harnessing quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers, this new technology threatens to break widely used encryption — while simultaneously offering the possibility of securing communication. The US, China, and Europe are engaged in a competitive race. China leads in quantum communication infrastructure, while the US holds an edge in gate-based hardware, which break algorithms into discrete, manageable steps to manipulate data. Europe is strong in quantum research and has spawned startups. All could still win the quantum prize. Unlike classical encryption, quantum key distribution (QKD) leverages the laws of physics to detect any interception attempt, making it tamper-proof rather than merely computationally hard to break. China has already operated a 2,000-kilometer QKD backbone between Beijing and Shanghai and has demonstrated satellite-based quantum key distribution over intercontinental distances. The European Quantum Communication Infrastructure promises to be a secure, pan-European quantum communications network. It will protect government communications, critical infrastructure, and data flows. The US supports quantum networking research through the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, university-led testbeds, and defense-relevant networking experiments. On both sides of the Atlantic, quantum secure communications represent a giant opportunity. Yet quantum also represents a potential danger. Once sufficiently powerful quantum computers exist, many current public-key encryption schemes could be broken. Adversaries such as China are already harvesting encrypted data, with the intent of decrypting it later. The US government has made quantum-safe encryption a legal and strategic requirement. Federal agencies are mandated to identify vulnerable systems and transition to quantum-resistant encryption standards, with a government-wide compliance deadline of 2035. The March 2026 National Cyber Strategy elevated quantum-safe encryption to a core pillar of
Key Points Pure play IonQ holds the world record for the most accurate quantum computing. Microsoft and Alphabet serve as excellent legacy quantum investing alternatives. Quantum computing may seem like a far-fetched technology, but the reality is that it's rapidly progressing to the point where it's starting to become useful in many applications. These investors should position themselves accordingly, as quantum computing could have a huge upside if investors pick the right stocks. I've got three stocks that I think are best positioned for quantum computing success. Investors should maintain some exposure to these stocks in case their breakthroughs cause them to go parabolic. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » IonQ IonQ(NYSE: IONQ) is one of the leaders of the quantum computing race. Its leadership status comes from its world-record holding system, which delivered 99.99% fidelity in a common test that quantum computing companies use to test accuracy. This is a huge deal, because the primary reason why we don't see more widespread quantum computing is its relative inaccuracy. IonQ believes that the 99.99% threshold is good enough for the company to start scaling its device to have millions of qubits by 2030. For reference, it plans to implement this technology to build a 256-qubit system this year. Should IonQ develop an accurate quantum computing system with millions of qubits by 2030, it could take the world by storm and be one of the top-performing quantum computing stocks, especially in applications where perfect accuracy is critical. However, the reason why IonQ has achieved this incredible accuracy figure is the architecture it's designing its computer around. It's using a technology called trapped ion, which
Intel teams up everywhere; GPU rowhammer attack; faster verification; Samsung’s new packaging site; Taiwan IC industry wants stockpiles; China poaches Taiwan talent; thinnest GaN chiplet; AFM-IR; Europe revenue drop; new edge design; BMW hydrogen power; Japanese automotive trouble. Intel will join Elon Musk’s Terafab chip manufacturing project alongside Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. Intel described its role as helping refactor silicon fab technology for a project targeting production of 1 TW/year of compute for AI and robotics applications. Intel and Google are expanding a multi-year collaboration on AI and cloud infrastructure, with Intel Xeon processors continuing to power Google Cloud systems. Also, the two companies are expanding the co-development of custom ASIC-based IPUs. Broadcom will develop and supply Google with future TPUs, networking, and other components. Anthropic, Google, and Broadcom also inked a deal for multiple gigawatts of next-gen TPU capacity scheduled to come online in 2027, mostly located in the U.S. Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry Association is asking the government to stockpile IC related raw materials like helium and liquified natural gas, and to support the reopening of nuclear power plants due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. South Korea’s big ambitions to “construct the highway for the AI era” could also be at risk due to the energy issues stemming from the Iran war, with startups being particularly vulnerable without the months’ worth of supplies some of the bigger chipmakers have. New tech Bruker is accelerating development of photothermal AFM-IR spectroscopy for semiconductor research, and has installed its Dimension IconIR system at imec under a joint development project focused on nanoscale materials and interface characterization. The company said the platform can deliver label-free chemical analysis with sub-5nm resolution. Intel Foundry demonstrated what it describes as the world’s thinnest GaN chiplet, built on a 300mm GaN-on-silicon wafer with a
Quantum computing may seem like a far-fetched technology, but the reality is that it's rapidly progressing to the point where it's starting to become useful in many applications. These investors should position themselves accordingly, as quantum computing could have a huge upside if investors pick the right stocks. I've got three stocks that I think are best positioned for quantum computing success. Investors should maintain some exposure to these stocks in case their breakthroughs cause them to go parabolic. IonQ IonQ (IONQ +2.49%) is one of the leaders of the quantum computing race. Its leadership status comes from its world-record holding system, which delivered 99.99% fidelity in a common test that quantum computing companies use to test accuracy. This is a huge deal, because the primary reason why we don't see more widespread quantum computing is its relative inaccuracy. IonQ believes that the 99.99% threshold is good enough for the company to start scaling its device to have millions of qubits by 2030. For reference, it plans to implement this technology to build a 256-qubit system this year. Should IonQ develop an accurate quantum computing system with millions of qubits by 2030, it could take the world by storm and be one of the top-performing quantum computing stocks, especially in applications where perfect accuracy is critical. NYSE: IONQ Key Data Points However, the reason why IonQ has achieved this incredible accuracy figure is the architecture it's designing its computer around. It's using a technology called trapped ion, which trades accuracy for speed. There are other quantum computing techniques, namely superconducting, that deliver slightly less accuracy but far better speed. That's the path that my other two picks are taking, and I think having exposure to both types is key to having long-term quantum computing investment success. Alphabet and Microsoft Alphabet
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Forget software patches and firewalls. The threat of physics itself is kicking off what is perhaps the most consequential cybersecurity arms race in the digital era. Quantum Day (Q-Day), the moment when commercially available quantum computers can break widely used cryptographic systems, is no longer a distant hypothetical. It’s approaching faster than many firms expected, with Google now pushing a 2029 timeline for quantum-safe readiness. As a result of the shrinking strategic horizon, what was once a theoretical, deep-tech risk is instead now being operationalized into present-day procurement decisions, product roadmaps and compliance mandates. In response, a rapidly forming ecosystem of vendors are introducing protocols and services aimed at helping organizations migrate toward quantum-resilient architectures. Firms including Palo Alto Networks, Cloudflare, Cisco, IBM, Nokia, Multipeak Global, BTQ Technologies, Circle, Equal1, Zoom and others have announced post-quantum cryptography (PQC) capabilities or roadmaps in recent months and days. Meanwhile, Nasdaq-listed Perpetuals on Wednesday (April 8) introduced a potential new category, Quantum-Resilience-as-a-Service (QRaaS), designed to help enterprises audit and upgrade their cryptographic infrastructure in anticipation of quantum threats. See also: Google’s Quantum Warning Exposes a Big Problem for Crypto Advertisement: Scroll to Continue The Roadmap Shifts From Theory to Deadline-Driven Urgency The premise behind quantum cryptography is deceptively simple: classical encryption relies on mathematical complexity, while quantum encryption relies on the immutable properties of quantum physics. Techniques such as quantum key distribution (QKD) promise theoretically unbreakable communication channels, even in a world where quantum computers can crack existing cryptographic standards. The near-term driver is risk mitigation. Financial institutions, governments and critical infrastructure operators are investing in quantum-safe solutions to protect sensitive data against future decryption. This includes the growing concern about “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, in which adversaries store encrypted data today with the expectation of breaking it with quantum computers in
Quantum-safe bitcoin now possible without a soft fork, but costs $200 a pop, new research shows A new scheme from a StarkWare researcher works under existing consensus rules, offering an emergency fallback while BIP-360 awaits activation. What to know: - A StarkWare researcher has proposed Quantum Safe Bitcoin, a hash-based scheme that can make bitcoin transactions resistant to quantum attacks today without changing the Bitcoin protocol. - The method works within existing consensus rules but requires massive off-chain GPU computation, driving estimated costs to $75 to $200 per transaction and making it far more complex than standard payments. - Framed as a last-resort emergency tool rather than a permanent fix, QSB contrasts with long-term proposals like BIP-360, which seek protocol-level quantum resistance but are likely years away from activation. A StarkWare researcher has published what he says is the first method for making bitcoin transactions quantum-safe on the live network today, without any changes to the Bitcoin protocol. The scheme, however, costs up to $200 per transaction and is designed as an emergency measure rather than a permanent fix. In a paper published this week, StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy introduced Quantum Safe Bitcoin, or QSB, a scheme that aims to enable quantum-resistant transactions without requiring changes to the Bitcoin protocol, by replacing signature-based security assumptions with hash-based proofs within its design. The hash-based design survives the kind of quantum attack that would break today’s cryptography, but shifts the burden from consensus to computation, requiring heavy off-chain GPU work for every transaction. Think of traditional digital signatures as a handwritten signature on a cheque, which proves you authorized a transaction using a secret key that others can cross check with a public key. In Bitcoin, these digital signatures are called ECDSA signatures. They are secure against today’s computers, but a sufficiently
One of Bitcoin's (BTC +1.20%) very few existential risks is suddenly looming a lot closer. On March 30, Google Research's Quantum AI division published a whitepaper arguing that the encryption protecting Bitcoin and virtually every other major cryptocurrency on the market today can be broken with a dramatically less complex quantum computer than what was previously believed. That doesn't mean that someone can steal your coins tomorrow, but it does mean that the risk posed by quantum computers could be arriving a lot faster than nearly all investors assumed, so anyone holding the asset needs to understand what just changed. Some might even want to consider selling it. Here's what's going on and why. What the new paper says, and why it matters One of Bitcoin's most fundamental properties is that it provisions for ownership. If you control a specific wallet and you don't share any information about it with anyone else, you can be confident that the coins contained within will remain under your control, provided that you don't make any security errors. The blockchain's encryption scheme ensures that nobody else can pretend to be you or otherwise gain the ability to sell or transfer your holdings. If that suddenly changes, it's reasonable to expect the coin's price to crater, perhaps permanently. That encryption is itself based on complicated math problems, which are prohibitively time-consuming to solve (crack) with normal computers like the ones we use every day. But sufficiently powerful quantum computers running a complicated math problem-solving algorithm called Shor's algorithm could eventually crack the encryption quite quickly. CRYPTO: BTC Key Data Points Such quantum computers do not exist as of yet, though significantly simpler ones do. The gist of the situation is that cracking encryption efficiently with a quantum device requires the device to have a significantly
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Google moved up its estimated deadline for quantum preparedness in cryptography to 2029—only 33 months from now. That’s earlier than previous deadlines, and they proposed the new post-quantum migration deadline because of two new papers that comprise a big jump in the state of the technology. It’s ahead of schedule, but not altogether unexpected. Cryptographers and engineers have been working on this for years, and as the deadline gets closer, it’s not surprising to see more precise timeline estimates come up. The preparation for the Y2K bug is not a perfect analogy. Like Y2K, if systems are not updated in time, anyone with a powerful enough quantum computer will be able to more easily insert malware into the core systems of a computer and fake authentication to allow impersonation merely by observing network traffic. These are the threats whose mitigation timelines have been moved up. But unlike Y2K, there’s a second sort of attack that we already need to be prepared for: quantum computers will be able to decrypt years of captured messages sent over encrypted messaging platforms shared any time before those platforms updated to quantum-proof encryption. That type of attack has been the main focus of engineering efforts so far and mitigation is well on its way, since anything before the upgrade might eventually be compromised. Fortunately, not all cryptography is broken by quantum computers. Notably, symmetric encryption is quantum resistant. That means that if you have disk encryption turned on, you shouldn’t have to worry about quantum computers breaking into your phone, as long as your system’s keys are long enough. The problem is how you get the keys to do that encryption, and how you authenticate software on your device and in the cloud. Engineers: Time to Lock In For those whose work touches on any
sakkmesterke - stock.adobe.com European Union deep tech plan too late for quantum champions IQM and Pasqal European quantum computing firms hurry to get US stock exchange listings so they can be predator not prey in a coming wave of consolidation Europe’s two largest quantum computing firms announced plans to go public on the US stock market just as the European Commission was finalising urgent plans to stop deep tech firms selling to overseas investors. The launch of hurried bids by Finland’s IQM and France’s Pasqal to raise the money they need to make quicker progress in developing viable quantum computer systems coincided with the start of another urgent programme, by the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (Darpa). The programme pledged to prove an alternative quantum computing architecture was feasible before leading quantum firms wasted any more time and money on current dominant designs, which it said would fail. Quantum computing firms need hundreds of millions of euros from investors to develop technology that is still so advanced that most expect it will be 2030 with hundreds of millions more spent before they deliver systems capable of meeting expectations. The situation is characteristic of so-called deep tech firms that Europe is now striving urgently to help, in sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), biotech, robotics and space. The upfront cost of research and development is high for deep tech firms trying to engineer futuristic products from recent scientific breakthroughs, and the time they need to deliver a commercial product is often decades long. As a consequence, the risk that it will never deliver at all is great enough that in Europe, at least, investors have been reluctant to put up funding for all but their early stages of growth. EU rescue bid As IQM and Pasqal hatched plans to raise
Race for Supercomputers: Germany Launches Quantum Computing Competition With a multi-million euro funding program, the Research Ministry aims to realize two error-corrected quantum computers at European top level by 2030. Germany's technological sovereignty is to be secured at the atomic level in the future. The Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) has officially published the funding guidelines for the “Quantum Computing Competition” (QCC). The competition is part of the Federal Government's High-Tech Agenda. Its goal: By 2030, at least two new quantum computers should be available that are at the European top level. The focus is on industry-led, cutting-edge research. It primarily addresses start-ups and established companies to close the gap between theoretical excellence and practical application. Key Technology Quantum Computer Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) justifies the announcement of the QCC with the significance of the technology, which goes far beyond pure computing power. Quantum computers are considered a key technology and promise breakthroughs in fields that are currently hardly accessible to conventional supercomputers. According to Bär, such systems could accelerate the development of drugs or control complex traffic flows in real-time. The expected synergy effect with artificial intelligence is promising for the tech industry: New approaches in machine learning could experience a significant performance boost for AI models through quantum technology. “For our competitiveness and sovereignty, we must be at the forefront internationally,” explains Bär. She is convinced: With the QCC, “we are on the way to becoming a top quantum technology country.” Together with German quantum companies, the federal government will take the decisive step. The focus is no longer solely on basic research, but on establishing measurable success parameters for technologically excellent hardware made in Germany. Videos by heise Technology-Open Competition The competition is designed to be technology-open, relying on diversity rather than
Why is the timeline to quantum-proof everything constantly shrinking? When Google announced last month it was moving up its own internal timeline for migrating to quantum-resistant forms of encryption, it started a broader conversation in the cybersecurity and cryptography communities: Just what was pushing one of the largest tech companies in the world to significantly accelerate its adoption of post-quantum protections for its systems, devices and data? In the weeks since, new research has lended weight to those claims. A joint research paper from the California Institute of Technology, its tech startup Oratomic and the University of California concluded that technological advancements in neutral atom arrays indicate a quantum computer capable of breaking classical encryption may require as few as 10,000 quantum bits (or qubits), not millions as previously thought. Qian Xu, a CalTech researcher and coauthor of the paper, said the findings are significant and indicates that such a computer could potentially be operational by the end of the decade. “For decades, qubit count has been viewed as the main obstacle to fault-tolerant quantum computing,” Xu said in a statement. “I hope our work helps shift that perspective.” Google’s Quantum AI division released its own research paper around the same time, outlining a twenty-fold decrease in the number of physical qubits believed to be needed to break some of the most popular forms of 256-bit elliptic curve encryption algorithms used to currently protect cryptocurrencies. “We note that while viable solutions like [post-quantum cryptography] exist, they will take time to implement, bringing increasing urgency to act,” wrote Ryan Babbush, director of research and Hartmut Neven, vice president of engineering at Google. Google’s decision to accelerate its shift to post-quantum encryption reflects a growing consensus. Over the past year, CyberScoop has heard similar concerns from tech and government officials, typically centered