Physical Superintelligence uses AI to crack a two-decade-old quantum computing puzzle

The Cambridge startup says its system proved the Aaronson-Ambainis conjecture in three days, with a Lean formalization to back it up A startup that is barely two months old says it has settled a quantum computing question that stumped researchers for nearly two decades. Physical Superintelligence, or PSI, announced on November 6, 2026 that it had proven the Aaronson-Ambainis conjecture. The work used its internal research system alongside a non-public Anthropic model, and the company says the proof landed on day three of the system’s run. Even more striking is the reaction from one of the people who posed the problem. Scott Aaronson says he doesn’t fully follow the proof. He believes it anyway. What PSI actually proved The Aaronson-Ambainis conjecture is about a basic question: when can quantum computers actually beat classical ones on speed? It was first floated around 2008 and given a formal statement in 2014. Stripped to its mathematical core, the conjecture says that every bounded low-degree polynomial on the Boolean cube has an influential variable. According to the research findings, the proof rules out exponential quantum advantage on random oracles for decision problems. Pa...