Matthew Green notes that the industry is currently shifting from traditional public-key algorithms based on EC-based cryptography and RSA to new post-quantum algorithms based on novel problems. He argues that if artificial intelligence succeeds in undermining all of these hard problems, then the current moment represents the perfect time for a massive new public cryptanalysis capability to come online. Unless AI achieves this total breakage or we live in a scenario described as Impagliazzo’s Minicrypt, the technology could not be better suited for getting good at cryptanalysis. In the best case, the result is that we gain real confidence in the problems we have identified and the cryptanalysis literature gets a lot more robust. Hopefully.
This perspective matters because the transition to post-quantum standards like HAWK requires rigorous verification before global adoption. AI tools offer a scalable method to stress-test these mathematical foundations against attacks that human analysts might miss. The outcome determines whether the new standards are secure or require further revision before deployment.
* The transition moves away from EC-based cryptography and RSA.
* New standards like HAWK are currently under consideration.
* Verification relies on proving problems are hard against AI analysis.