Quantum IT is so fire – no, seriously. Bofa says it could be the greatest breakthrough in humanity since the discovery of fire
In a recent note on quantum computing, analysts of Bank of America had to go back in time, since a comparable advancement of human history.
Indeed, the use of subatomic particles to process data offers the potential to jump a light year before what is possible with traditional semiconductor-based electronics.
“It could be the greatest revolution in humanity since the discovery of fire,” they wrote on Wednesday. “A technology that can perform endless complex calculations in human knowledge and development at zero and deformation.”
Scientific evidence suggests that the first humans began using fire in a controlled way hundreds of thousands of years, and perhaps even 1 million years ago.
So how is quantum computers compared to that? Theoretically, there is no calculation that a quantum computer cannot do, said Bofa, adding that it could “change everything”, by creating new drugs and new materials, increasing longevity and improving encryption and logistics, to name only a few examples.
At the same time, the revolution of artificial intelligence which is also underway could be turbocharged by quantum computer, and vice versa.
“Genai can help accelerate the development and testing time for quantum systems, which could lead to training on AI models at the level of artificial super intelligence,” said Bofa.
There have already been major milestones in quantum computer science. In 2023, Google said that its quantum processor Sycamore had completed a calculation in 6 seconds which would have taken the upper supercalculator 47 years.
And in December, Google said that its quantum will have resolved a problem with a problem in less than five minutes which would have taken the fastest supercomputer in the world 10 years (or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 years).
But a quantum computer has not yet solved a real problem useful more quickly than a classic computer could not, said Bofa. Indeed, qubits, fundamental units of quantum information, always suffer from too much “noise” or disturbances that can cause calculation errors.
In January, the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, said that the most exciting developments in quantum computer science were more than a decade.
In March, he sought to temper expectations for quantum computer science which, in a way, “will be better in the spreadsheets”.
Rob Schoelkopf, chief co -founder and scientist of quantum circuits, also said at the time that the progress of quantum computer science would occur more gradually rather than in a sudden reversal of a switch.
“We are going to turn the volume regularly, and we can start to hear music now, and finally everyone can hear music,” he predicted.
Meanwhile, Bofa noted that quantum IT also has geopolitical implications. Technology can level the rules of global power power game, in which the United States is currently leading the world.
“The one who wins the” quantum race “will gain an unprecedented geopolitical, technological and economic advantage,” said analysts.
