Inside the quest for unbreakable encryption
Cryptographers want encryption schemes that are impossible for tomorrow’s quantum computers to crack. There’s only one catch: they might not…
Category: Features
How to recycle an EV battery
The upswing in EV sales means a flood of used batteries in the coming years. What's the best way to…
Here’s why mathematicians are so interested in cake cutting
Ariel Procaccia has thought a lot about how to cut cake over the last 15 years. That’s partly because the…
How to build a big prime number
Prime numbers are tricky things. We learn in school that they’re numbers with no factors other than 1 and themselves,…
The Unpredictable Abilities Emerging From Large AI Models
Large language models like ChatGPT are now big enough that they’ve started to display startling, unpredictable behaviors. What movie do…
Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media
In steganography, an ordinary message masks the presence of a secret communication. Humans can never do it perfectly, but a…
Peering inside the black box of AI
Five years ago, computer scientist Alan Fern and his colleagues at Oregon State University, in Corvallis, set out to answer…
Should We Be Testing Everyone’s DNA?
Kelly Kashmer credits genetic testing with saving her life. In 2014, during a routine medical appointment, a physician’s assistant began…
The New Math of Wrinkling
A few minutes into a 2018 talk at the University of Michigan, Ian Tobasco picked up a large piece of paper and…
Will Transformers Take Over Artificial Intelligence?
Imagine going to your local hardware store and seeing a new kind of hammer on the shelf. You’ve heard about…