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Predictive surrogates could cut quantum computing measurement overhead by more than 99.97%

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential of outperforming classical computers on some tasks. Despite their potential, the use of these systems remains very limited, due to their high cost and other challenges that have so far prevented their large-scale fabrication.

Researchers at the Henan Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Cryptography and Nanyang Technological University have developed predictive surrogates, new computational models that can learn and reproduce the outputs of quantum processors.

These models, introduced in a paper published in Nature Communications, could be used to extract useful information from quantum computers and perform computations more efficiently with provable guarantees, even if users do not have direct access to advanced and expensive quantum computing hardware.

Google adds Android protection against AI deepfake scam calls

Google is introducing a new Android security feature that will detect and flag phone calls in which scammers use artificial intelligence to impersonate a user’s personal contacts.

Called “fake call detection,” the feature is rolling out globally this month to Android 12 and later devices, starting with Pixel devices, and will be enabled by default.

Once activated, it works automatically when both a caller and recipient are using Phone by Google: when a contact places a call, their device sends a silent, encrypted confirmation signal to the recipient’s device in real time.

The quantum internet, explained

The quantum internet is a network of quantum computers that will someday send, compute, and receive information encoded in quantum states. The quantum internet will not replace the modern or “classical” internet; instead, it will provide new functionalities such as quantum cryptography and quantum cloud computing.

While the full implications of the quantum internet won’t be known for some time, several applications have been theorized and some, like quantum key distribution, are already in use.

It’s unclear when a full-scale global quantum internet will be deployed, but researchers estimate that interstate quantum networks will be established within the United States in the next 10 to 15 years.

AI and ultralow-energy lasers enable an ultrafast authentication system

The security of modern communications heavily relies on systems that can rapidly and reliably verify users and the devices they are using. This process, known as authentication, essentially entails confirming that users or devices are legitimate (i.e., who or what they claim to be).

Conventional authentication systems rely on static cryptographic keys, fixed digital keys that allow encryption algorithms to scramble readable data into unreadable texts or vice versa. While these systems perform well in some contexts, they often struggle when networks include billions of devices that continuously connect and disconnect.

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) recently developed a new system that could authenticate devices faster and more reliably in real time, even when they are connecting to large-scale networks, cloud services or virtual environments.

Perfect randomness realized for the first time

Creating perfect randomness is surprisingly difficult. Even modern random number generators never generate completely ideal random numbers: small systematic errors can result in some numbers appearing slightly more frequently than others. For many applications, this does not matter. In cryptography, however, even the tiniest deviations can be problematic.

Now, researchers at ETH Zurich led by Renato Renner and Andreas Wallraff in the Department of Physics have demonstrated how perfect randomness can actually be created using quantum physics. Their results, which have just been published in Nature, represent a milestone in this area of research.

Randomization can improve quantum computer performance in presence of noise

New research led by a graduating Ph.D. student in The University of New Mexico Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has shown that randomization can improve quantum computer performance in the presence of noise.

Ph.D. student Leeseok Kim led the research under the advice of Assistant Professor Milad Marvian, with support from Changhao Yi, a former member of Marvian’s group. Their findings, titled “Faster Randomized Dynamical Decoupling,” are published in the journal Physical Review Letters and were presented at QSim 2025, an international conference in quantum simulation.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve certain problems faster than classical computers, with promising applications in areas such as simulation and discovery of new materials, optimization, and cryptography. However, building quantum computers that can solve practically relevant problems at scale remains difficult because they are susceptible to noise. Reducing noise more effectively is therefore a key challenge.

IOS 26.5 Brings Default End-to-End Encrypted RCS Messaging Between iPhone and Android

RCS is a modern, internet-based messaging protocol that allows Android and iPhone users to send high-resolution photos and videos, see typing indicators, and receive read receipts, features all typically present in instant messaging apps. It is built on an industry specification called the RCS Universal Profile.

“When RCS messages are end-to-end encrypted, they can’t be read while they’re sent between devices,” Apple said in a statement. “Users will know that a conversation is end-to-end encrypted when they see a new lock icon in their RCS chats.”

Apple began testing with E2EE in RCS messages in iOS and iPadOS 26.4 Beta, initially limiting it to only conversations between Apple devices. In early 2025, the GSM Association (GSMA) announced support for E2EE for safeguarding messages sent via the RCS protocol.

How Unknowable Math Can Help Hide Secrets

Perhaps the most famous example comes from a theorem by the logician Kurt Gödel’s celebrated result — one of two “incompleteness theorems” he published in 1931 — established that for any reasonable set of basic mathematical assumptions, called axioms, it’s impossible to prove that the axioms won’t eventually lead to contradictions. Though mathematicians continued their research much as they had before, they would never again be certain that their rules were self-consistent.

More than 50 years after Gödel’s theorem, cryptographers devised a radical new proof method in which unknowability played a very different role. Proofs based on this technique, called zero-knowledge proofs, can convince even the most skeptical audience that a statement is true without revealing why it’s true.

These two flavors of unknowability, which originated decades apart and in different fields, were long considered completely unrelated. Now the computer scientist Rahul Ilango (opens a new tab) has established a striking connection (opens a new tab) between them. While still a graduate student, he devised a new type of zero-knowledge proof in which secrecy stems from the fundamental limits of math. Ilango’s approach gets around limitations of zero-knowledge proofs that researchers have long thought insurmountable, pushing the boundaries of what such a proof can be. The work has also spurred researchers to explore other intriguing links between mathematical logic and cryptography.

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