Have you heard of quantum computing? Chances are you’ve done it by now, even if just in passing. Also, if not, surely don’t delay doing it. For many people, quantum computing is the technology of the future, at the level of artificial intelligence or even above it.
For years, it must be admitted, quantum computing has been something uncertain, distant. It was mainly commented on in experienced media, but without putting too much of a date on it. Now, however, a new study ensures that its arrival is closer than ever, just around the corner. Interestingly, this can be a problem for many.
Quantum computing, an uncomfortable reality?
The study in question has not been carried out by anyone who passed by. It has been IBM itself who has set a date for its arrival: the year 2030. It is striking, first of all, that it is the same year in which artificial general intelligence would supposedly also land. That, of course, if the predictions of many experts were correct.
What the research highlights, however, is that the rise of quantum computing (which will happen soon, there is no doubt about that) will bring more headaches than joys. If artificial intelligence is causing layoffs and threatening more disruptions, its main competitor (or partner, that is not yet clear) promises to turn everything much more upside down.
The explanation given by those responsible for the study is simple: many companies are not even remotely prepared. Experts have surveyed thousands of business executives in dozens of countries, and the vast majority of them agree that quantum computing will change everything, and it will change it soon. But they admit they are not doing anything about it.
That is to say, they are neither adapting to their possibilities nor do they plan to do so in the future. In part, experts reason, because artificial intelligence is taking over the entire protagonist. Many companies have enough to invest and deal with it to also do so with other innovation. Revolutions, one at a time, please, they seem to think.
New rules on the horizon
Ready or not, quantum computers work using qubits. This supposedly allows multiple states to be represented at the same time. Or what is the same, generate previously unthinkable advances in finance optimization, digital security or improvement of artificial intelligence tools. The problem? That many current systems would become obsolete.
That is to say, the impact on security would be enormous. Many encrypted systems today would no longer be secure. Not to mention that great technological inequality could be experienced. Smaller companies would have a harder time than they already have. As long as IBM is right and in less than five years quantum computing becomes a reality. That remains to be seen.