  How fast quantum information scrambles such that it becomes inaccessible by
local probes turns out to be central to various fields. Motivated by recent
works on spin systems with nonlocal interactions, we study information
scrambling in different variants of the Ising model. Our work reveals that
nonlocal interactions can induce operator dynamics not precisely captured by
out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs). In particular, the operator size
exhibits a slowdown in systems with generic powerlaw interactions despite a
highly nonlinear lightcone. A recently proposed microscopic model for fast
scrambling does not show this slowdown, which uncovers a distinct analogy
between a local operator under unitary evolution and the entanglement entropy
following a quantum quench. Our work gives new insights on scrambling
properties of systems in reach of current quantum simulation platforms and
complements results on possibly observing features of quantum gravity in the
laboratory.
