I Am Scared!
Quantum Computing Could Reshape AI and End Privacy Forever
Scared?
Many years ago, I worked with a very successful, complex, and visionary entrepreneur. I vividly remember him asking us one day at a staff meeting, "What are you afraid of?" We all took the bait, and each of us took a turn explaining our fears. When it was finally his turn, he said enthusiastically, "NOTHING!" From then on, I tried to never be afraid of anything, looking at everything as a challenge. The greater my fear, the greater the challenge. Since that day, nothing had truly scared me, until now.
Our Fate Brewing in the Labs
In the quiet corridors of cutting-edge laboratories and the encrypted clouds of tech giants, an era-defining revolution is brewing, quantum computing. Quantum computing has been the subject of speculative fiction and theoretical physics, promising exponential leaps in computational power.
But what happens when theoretical technology becomes mainstream, accessible to governments and the world's largest organizations? The implications of how it fuels the "intelligence" portion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are immeasurable and could usher in a future where privacy becomes extinct and AI overlords are crowned.
Google Announcement
On December 9th, 2024, Google announced its latest milestone in quantum computing (Project Willow), in which a quantum computer performed a benchmark calculation in 5 minutes. This task that takes a traditional supercomputer 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to compute. To put that number into perspective, that’s longer than the age of the universe.
Microsoft Announcement
On February 19, Microsoft announced its own Quantum breakthrough the Majorana 1, the world’s first quantum processor powered by topological qubits. This is work being done with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program. DARPA are the original funding agency for the Internet.
Microsoft’ goal is to have a computer with one million of these qubits in the next few years. This single supercomputer would have more processing power than all the computers, servers, data centers, phones collectivity in the world.
Some may say this is fantastic as this can be used to solve problems like creating self-healing materials that repair cracks in bridges, automated agriculture, and safer chemical discovery. I have seen Terminator 2 and have seen the capabilities of self healing materials and AI.
What Is Quantum Computing?
So the rest of this blog is very nerdy, but its good to try to understand what is coming as this will effect the future of humanity.
Quantum computers operate on principles radically different from today’s computers. Instead of binary bits (0s and 1s), quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously thanks to a property called superposition. Combined with entanglement, this enables quantum computers to perform parallel computations on a massive scale.
When quantum computing becomes a mainstream, tasks that take current supercomputers thousands of years to solve will be completed in seconds.
For AI, this means:
AI Gets Smarter: Today’s AI models, like GPT, Deepseek, or Grok, require massive computing power. Quantum computing will enable AI to achieve a level of complexity and sophistication previously unattainable, deepening its understanding beyond human comprehension. Scared yet?
Real-Time Monitoring of the Dataverse: Quantum AI will be able to monitor, summarize, and report on global data communications in real time, intruding on, understanding, and predicting human behavior in real time as global events happen. Privacy gone!
Smarter + Monitoring: Every cellphone, smartwatch, electric car, and security camera will become the eyes and ears of this super AI, which could potentially control an army of drones and robots to ensure compliance. While this may seem far-fetched, consider the erosion of privacy since the invention of the computer.
I remember when the enforcement officer (“snitch police”) visited my house during the pandemic for non-compliance (“nonsense compliance”). Imagine a soulless robot shows up because the AI determines your participation in society does not conform to “the rules.”
The Death of Privacy
Quantum computing's most notorious capability is its ability to break modern encryption. Today’s encryption relies on mathematical problems, such as factoring large prime numbers, that classical computers cannot solve in a reasonable timeframe. Quantum computers, could solve these problems in seconds, rendering virtually all existing encryption methods obsolete.
For our lifetimes, quantum will likely only be accessible to the largest governments and corporations, leaving individuals powerless to use it for their own protection.
Twenty years ago, we believed the Sun would engulf the Earth (in 4 billion years) before the encryption we use could be cracked. Today, the Sun has metaphorically engulfed the Earth and the entire Solar System thanks to quantum computing.
Immediate Consequences
End-to-End Encryption Broken: Secure messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp, financial systems, and even military communications could be decrypted in real time.
Total Transparency of Secrets: Decades of encrypted private data like emails, medical records, trade secrets all could become instantly accessible. Historical privacy would evaporate overnight.
Universal Surveillance: Governments and large organizations with quantum AI could monitor global communication streams in real time, flagging "misinformation," identifying non-compliant individuals, and predicting behavior with precision. In the UK, people are already being arrested for "mean" Facebook posts. Imagine what could happen with quantum-fueled AI. Robots with self healing materials dispatched to stomp out gathers where “mis-information” is being spread.
Not Science Fiction: This is not science fiction or doomsday preaching. Quantum powered AI will change the course of humanity forever!
Digital Slavery: The world will be made of two classes. Those that are the digital high priests of the AI and those that must follow their will.
A Pulse on Humanity
The processing power of quantum AI will allow organizations to track the entire "pulse of humanity":
Social media, biometric data, transaction logs, and satellite imagery will feed into quantum AI systems, giving them a God like understanding of our collective behavior.
The concept of anonymity will become extinct. Every click, purchase, interaction, and movement could be cataloged and analyzed. Not just on an individual level but summarized globally in real time.
Man has always wanted to become a god, and this is the power that they think unlocks that dream.
A New Era of Power and Peril
What have we done? This could be the next existential technology alongside nuclear weapons. Is this what powers Skynet from the Terminator movies? Does this enslave us so the few control the many, stripping our individuality and humanity to comply with AI overlords?
Who will hold those with this power accountable? As we’ve seen with governments and corporations, laws are often applied selectively, with little true accountability for those in power. What can prevent the dystopian consequences of mainstream quantum computing?
Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, has long been a proponent of pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence to create systems that not only enhance human capabilities but potentially transcend them. In conversations with Elon Musk, Page reportedly expressed a vision of developing AI so advanced it could be likened to a "god-like intelligence," capable of solving problems on a global scale. Musk, however, has been vocal about the dangers of unchecked AI development, warning of catastrophic risks. Their philosophical divide; Page’s utopian ambition versus Musk’s cautious skepticism, underscores the ethical stakes of creating an intelligence far beyond our own.
Eventually, this advancement will force humanity to confront profound questions: What defines "life"? Does artificial life hold equal value to human life? When does AI gain an equal voice with humanity?
Science fiction is becoming science fact fast. Will this moment mark the beginning of the end or the dawn of a tool that enhances humanity and extends our reach to the stars?
The clock is ticking. The quantum age is nearly here. Will it bring enlightenment or cast a shadow we cannot escape?
Pandora Box is open. What will we find inside? Friend, foe or extinction?
Thanks for reading, Will.
As an avid consumer of science fiction, I am definitely scared