Updated

Physical Superintelligence (PSI), a startup lab, used early access to an unreleased Anthropic model to solve the Aaronson-Ambainis conjecture, an 18-year-old quantum computing problem, TechCrunch reported on November 10, 2026. The solution closes off one avenue quantum computers could use to solve certain hard problems quickly, but not all of them. David Turturean, a recent MIT graduate on PSI's technical staff, said the result is a negative one that tells researchers where not to look. Scott Aaronson, one of the two researchers who posed the problem, said he does not fully understand the proof but believes it is correct because it was autoformalized in Lean and explained by top researchers with whom PSI shared it. Aaronson also said he was surprised the problem was missing from an OpenAI batch of solved problems released a few weeks earlier. PSI's revenue currently comes from using its tools to optimise data centers by simulating heat, power, water and sound, while its longer-term aim is turning theoretical physics breakthroughs into technologies. CEO Matt Pines said PSI's model relies on specialised harnesses, tools and simulation infrastructure, and that physics is harder than mathematics because nature must validate models. Jim Halverson, a Northeastern University professor who advises PSI, said the team held the result until the model was nearly released so it could share it with experts, and that transparency and contacting experts are good practice.