The New York Times
ACM has named Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard the recipients of the 2025 ACM A.M. Turing Award for their work on quantum cryptography and related technologies. In a research paper published in 1983, the two demonstrated that quantum subway tokens they envisioned could never be forged, even if someone managed to steal the subway turnstile housing the hardware needed to read them. After describing their new form of encryption in a 1984 research paper, they demonstrated the technology with a physical experiment five years later. Called BB84, their system used photons to create encryption keys to lock and unlock digital data. Later, with colleagues, Bennett and Brassard showed the possibility of quantum teleportation.
From "Turing Award Goes to Inventors of Quantum Cryptography"
The New York Times (03/18/26) Cade Metz
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Scientific American
A brain-computer interface (BCI) developed by the BrainGate Consortium of researchers enables people with paralysis to type using their thoughts at speeds of up to 22 words per minute, near typical smartphone texting speeds. The system uses implanted electrodes to capture neural activity from the brain’s motor cortex and applies AI to predict intended finger movements on a QWERTY keyboard. The technology, however, is limited by the need to calibrate the BCI each time before it can used.
From "BCI Allows Paralyzed People to Type at Speed of Texting"
Scientific American (03/16/26) Tanya Lewis
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Bloomberg
The U.K. will invest at least £1 billion (U.S.$1.33 billion) in quantum computing research over the next four years, announced the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology. The initiative will fund companies to explore applications in pharmaceuticals, finance, energy, and quantum navigation as an alternative to GPS. The government also aims to support prototype systems and to scale up quantum computers for public, academic, and commercial use within a decade.
From "U.K. to Invest £1 Billion into Quantum Computing Research, Trials"
Bloomberg (03/16/26) Mia Dawkins; Mark Bergen
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The New York Times
Nvidia unveiled AI-related products at its GTC developer conference Monday in a bid to defend its dominance in a rapidly shifting market. CEO Jensen Huang said his company will pair its AI chips with chips from startup Groq, with which it has a $20-billion licensing agreement. David Newman, CEO of tech analysis firm Futurum, said he expects Nvidia will retain its 90% share of the market for chips to train AI, but predicts it will only garner a third of the market for chips to run that AI.
From "Nvidia Built the AI Era. Now It Must Defend It"
The New York Times (03/16/26) Kalley Huang; Tripp Mickle
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Reuters
Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics has secured a contract with the U.S. Navy to deploy robots and AI across ships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The robots can climb ship hulls, crawl through ballast tanks, and fly through confined spaces to collect data for the company’s AI platform, Cantilever, which can identify maintenance needs. Under the five-year contract, Gecko initially start working on 18 vessels.
From "U.S. Pacific Fleet to Deploy Wall-Climbing, Flying Robots on Ships"
Reuters (03/17/26) Mike Stone
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The San Diego Union Tribune
An AI-powered framework developed by Ph.D. student Seemandhar Jain at the University of California, San Diego, converts research papers into usable code, with the goal of speeding scientific collaboration. The NERFIFY system uses multiple specialized AI agents to read research papers and generate code automatically. NERFIFY, which focuses on neural radiance field (NeRF) research, can reduce the process of generating code from papers in this area from weeks to minutes.
From "Ph.D. Student’s Project Turns Research Papers into Shareable Code"
The San Diego Union Tribune (03/16/26) Noah Lyons
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