Peter Hall is an artificial intelligence and technology reporter and is currently working as an editorial fellow at Scientific American, a role supported by the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism. His writing has appeared in MIT Technology Review, Science, Quanta Magazine, and more. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from New York University.
Was this record-setting encryption crack a fluke—or the new normal?
A researcher’s social media post that revealed how to break part of a popular encryption protocol has gone viral. But did he really do it with just “good old paper and pencil”?
Two research efforts gave AI the same open problem. Their papers were submitted three hours apart
An M.I.T. Ph.D. student and two University of California system cryptographers used GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra in different ways, raising new questions about independent discovery and scientific credit
Scientists make AI play Battleship to help it do science better
AI models and people played “collaborative” Battleship to test strategies for efficiently solving problems
How ‘effectively zero-knowledge’ proofs could transform cryptography
A new tool expands the ways people can prove they’ve solved a problem without revealing the solution