with Dan Boneh, Eddy Lazzarin, Justin Thaler and Liz Harkavy
AI is getting better at solving hard math problems. But what does that mean for the cryptography protecting everything from banking and private messages to crypto wallets and more?
We bring together expert cryptographers from Stanford and a16z crypto to make sense of the recent warnings sounded on social media, partly sparked by OpenAI’s drop of recent math results. We cover what’s fact, what’s assumption; what’s new and which risks cryptographers have long prepared for; where quantum computing fits; and where they see opportunities for builders to make software more secure.
Highlights:
00:00 Intro 00:37 What sparked the debate about AI and cryptography 01:35 Signal vs. noise: What the math does and doesn’t tell us 05:29 Why cryptography depends on open problems 09:25 Why the stakes go beyond blockchains 10:43 How AI could strengthen confidence in cryptography 13:50 Considerations for users and institutions 20:10 Where AI and quantum threats overlap 22:32 Building systems that can change cryptographic methods 23:59 Hash-based versus lattice-based cryptography 33:07 Opportunities for builders and better security tools 38:14 What comes next if there were a cryptographic break?
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