AI and quantum computers will be frenemies

AI and quantum computers will be frenemies

The two technologies look more complementary than rivalrous

IN 2013 GOOGLE and NASA, America’s space agency, launched a quantum computing lab. The idea was to use a specialised quantum computer built by D-Wave, a Canadian firm, to improve the onerous task of training of machine-learning algorithms. Alas, the lab was ahead of its time not just once, but twice over. Neither machine learning—soon to be rechristened “artificial intelligence”—nor quantum computing were then mature technologies, as D-Wave’s boss, Alan Baratz, now concedes. A paper published in Nature Physics the year after the lab was founded showed that D-Wave’s machine was no better at AI work than a normal graphics-processing unit (GPU).

But like all superpowers, they will have their limits

You will get data, but perhaps not knowledge

Containing the technology is getting harder

It’s less crazy than you think

Hybrids, rather than fully electric planes, are likely to triumph

Better skin, faster wound-healing and reduced vision-loss are on the cards