Personally I find quantum computers really impressive, and they havent been given its righteous hype.
I know they won’t be something everyone has in their house but it will greatly improve some services.
I dunno if anyone except scientists and security people think about quantum computing at the moment.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
I’d say it’s still at the beginning of the curve. At the technology trigger phase. I don’t hear about it as much as I would expect
Pretty sure QC is down at 0,0 right now. They haven’t gotten it to work in the way it’s been envisioned yet. The theory is there, but until something is quantifiably working, there’s basically no hype behind it.
I’d say very slightly past that. Quantum computers do work right now, but it’s the same way the Wright brothers’ first plane worked: as proof of concept and research, but not better than existing tech for solving any problems.
And it’s not that they fail to meet expectations of the designers, as far as I know they do exactly what they are built to do as well as predicted with the tech we have. Just the press is expecting more.
The uses/advantages of quantum computing is also such that if it does work, the 3 letter agencies will want to keep it to themselves and decrypt as much as possible before admitting it even exists.
Isn’t post-quantum cryptography already a thing? Probably not implemented in anything meaningful yet, but still.
I personally think we’re on the slope of enlightenment - quantum computing no longer attracts as much hype as it used to, but in the background, there’s a lot of interesting developments that genuinely might be very important.
Quantum Computing is still climbing the slope from TT to the Peak of Inflated Expectations. There is still little to no major hype, as its still in “R&D/testing” it is slow, it is expensive (Very) limited due to all the surrounding tech required to make it work like cooling, containment etc…
Compare this to AI.
AI is at and heading down from the Peak towards the Trough of Disillusionment. It was easy (relatively) to implement, easy to evolve as how nVidia did, simply throw more silicon at it. The Hype was easy to generate because even while totally misinformed, media and other people out there thought they could easily sell it. Even though most of what they claimed was turd, it sounded amazing and a game changer even in the early stages, and businesses lapped it up. Now they are feeling the pain, and seeing that there are still major hurdles to get past.
AI is way different. It’s more like a series of hills where Sysiphus is pushing the boulder up to the peak, only to see another higher peak as the boulder rolls down the slope of disillusionment.
The thing is that quite a few things initially called AI have climbed that hype curve, rolled down into disillusionment, and quite a few have climbed back to a plateau of increased productivity. Each time we realize that’s either not AI or only a step toward AI. We’ve gotten a lot of useful functionality but the actual progress seems to be mainly clarifying what intelligence is or is not
The kind of LLM that caused this hype with GPT3 is in R&D since the 60’s. I belive we’re in the 70’s of Quantum Coputing. When It’ll be measured, it’d be just as easy and relatively cheep to produce and advance as AI today
Quantum computers have no place in typical consumer technology, its practical applications are super high level STEM research and cryptography. Beyond being cool to conceptualize why would there be hype around quantum computers from the perspective of most average people who can barely figure out how to post on social media or send an email?
…and cryptography.
I think I’m a typical consumer, and if I’m not mistaken we use cryptography constantly (https and banking, off the top of my head). If quantum computers are important for cryptography, it’s hard to imagine “regular people” having no use.
Cryptography is most of the hype I’ve heard. It’s usually something along the lines of imagine all encryption/certificates being breakable instantly
That’s not the case, quantum computing can only break specific types of cryptography.
Your use of Cryptography is probably roughly on the level of “Having a strong password.”
The application of quantum computers will largely in in BREAKING security. You’re not going to have a quantum-security module in your phone or home computer.
