# Superior resilience to poisoning and amenability to unlearning in quantum machine learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02422 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.02422/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Machine unlearning, one of 12 directions in LLM safety and security.
- Builds on 46 of its 82 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Aug 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM safety and security / [Machine unlearning](https://mlsanity.com/safety/machine-unlearning/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Intriguing properties of neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.6199/) (2013)
- [On Large-Batch Training for Deep Learning: Generalization Gap and Sharp Minima](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.04836/) (2016)
- [Machine Unlearning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.03817/) (2019)
- [Adversarial Machine Learning at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.01236/) (2016)
- [Generalized Out-of-Distribution Detection: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.11334/) (2021)
- [Variational Quantum Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09265/) (2020)
- [Evasion Attacks against Machine Learning at Test Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.06131/) (2017)
- [Supervised learning with quantum enhanced feature spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.11326/) (2018)
- [Barren plateaus in quantum neural network training landscapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.11173/) (2018)
- [Making AI Forget You: Data Deletion in Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.05012/) (2019)
- [Power of data in quantum machine learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.01938/) (2020)
- [Parameterized quantum circuits as machine learning models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.07682/) (2019)
- [Quantum Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.09347/) (2016)
- [Towards Unbounded Machine Unlearning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09880/) (2023)
- [Rethinking Machine Unlearning for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08787/) (2024)
- [Generalization in quantum machine learning from few training data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05292/) (2021)
- [Challenges and Opportunities in Quantum Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09491/) (2023)
- [Noise-Induced Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14384/) (2020)
- [Quantum advantage in learning from experiments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00778/) (2021)
- [Dataset Security for Machine Learning: Data Poisoning, Backdoor Attacks, and Defenses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.10544/) (2020)
- [Efficient Learning for Deep Quantum Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.10445/) (2019)
- [Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00781/) (2024)
- [Quantum generative adversarial networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08641/) (2018)
- [Just How Toxic is Data Poisoning? A Unified Benchmark for Backdoor and Data Poisoning Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.12557/) (2020)
- [Differentiable Learning of Quantum Circuit Born Machine](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.04168/) (2018)
- [Towards Adversarial Evaluations for Inexact Machine Unlearning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.06640/) (2022)
- [Quantum noise protects quantum classifiers against adversaries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.09416/) (2020)
- [Quantum Adversarial Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.00030/) (2019)
- [Understanding quantum machine learning also requires rethinking generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.13461/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Intrinsic preservation of plasticity in continual quantum learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17228/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The reliability of artificial intelligence hinges on the integrity of its training data, a foundation often compromised by noise and corruption. Here, through a comparative study of classical and quantum neural networks on both classical and quantum data, we reveal a fundamental difference in their response to data corruption. We find that classical models exhibit brittle memorization, leading to a failure in generalization. In contrast, quantum models demonstrate remarkable resilience, which is underscored by a phase transition-like response to increasing label noise, revealing a critical point beyond which the model's performance changes qualitatively. We further establish and investigate the field of quantum machine unlearning, the process of efficiently forcing a trained model to forget corrupting influences. We show that the brittle nature of the classical model forms rigid, stubborn memories of erroneous data, making efficient unlearning challenging, while the quantum model is significantly more amenable to efficient forgetting with approximate unlearning methods. Our findings establish that quantum machine learning can possess a dual advantage of intrinsic resilience and efficient adaptability, providing a promising paradigm for the trustworthy and robust artificial intelligence of the future.