Dr. Víctor Canivell
Víctor Canivell, corresponding member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), presented at the 10th International Academic Meeting held by the Royal Corporation between 15 and 20 March in various German cities under the general title “The Rhine as a Current of Knowledge: Cross-Border Dialogues” the lecture “What to Do in the Face of the Quantum Apocalypse, in Which All Internet Privacy Will Be Lost,” in which he warned of an unprecedented increase in cyber threats due both to the development of artificial intelligence tools and, especially, to advances in quantum computing. This is a problem, he noted, that is already worrying governments and major corporations.
The expert explained that new AI models capable of generating code are transforming the technology industry, reducing the need for traditional programmers, seriously affecting software giants, and increasing demand for artificial intelligence specialists. However, their most critical impact is in cybersecurity, since advanced tools have proven capable of detecting vulnerabilities at scale, which, in the hands of cybercriminals, could trigger massive attacks and pose a serious risk of a digital blackout. In this regard, the academic explained that the firm Anthropic had decided to grant urgent access to the latest version of its service, Claude Mythos Preview, to a select group of competitors and clients to address its security breaches.
He also pointed out that major technology companies have already brought forward their deadlines for adopting post-quantum cryptography in view of the possibility that future quantum systems may be able to decrypt data that today appears secure, in a kind of technological race between attackers and defenders in which the speed of innovation may generate systemic risks if action is not taken in advance. In this high-risk scenario, Canivell considered that the proper management of technologies will be key to avoiding potentially catastrophic consequences for the economy and society. Among his recommendations, he stressed the need for public administrations and companies to strengthen their cybersecurity systems with AI and to accelerate the transition towards new cryptographic standards.
Founder and President of the Spanish quantum computing start-up Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, one of the European leaders in the sector, Canivell was admitted to the READ last January with the admission speech “The Future Is Quantum: the Disruption That Comes after AI and Its Impact on the Economy”, in which he argues that the world is already quantum, from semiconductors to MRI scanners, but that the true revolution is yet to come with quantum computing, a technology capable of exponentially multiplying computing capacity and drastically reducing the energy consumption of data centres.
After more than twenty years in executive positions at American multinationals such as Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, 3Com and Perkin-Elmer, he returned to Spain to lead several information security and bioinformatics start-ups. He is a member of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics and of the American Physical Society. Among other recognitions, he received the Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 Award from the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineering and Digital Technologies.
