Convergence: Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing

CHAPTER 7Quantum Tuesday: How the U.S. Economy Will Fall, and How to Stop It

Alexander W. Butler, Associate Director, Quantum Alliance Initiative, Hudson Institute

“Even the most utopian of today's visionaries will have to concede that the mere existence of modern technology involves a risk to civilization that would have been unthinkable twenty-five years ago.”

—Herman Kahn, Thinking About the Unthinkable, 1962

New York, New York

Friday, November 3, 2028^*

Back at the start of the new millennium Wall Street raved about the dawn of artificial intelligence. Not only was it meant to improve everyday life, but these “smart” algorithms were set to revolutionize everything from high-speed trading to the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions. With the combination of the new generation of AI, paired with the dual powers of quantum annealers and classical supercomputers, a new industrial revolution had already begun. Medical research was now supercharged, and the traffic grid was now operating smoothly enough to enable a full rollout of completely autonomous vehicles. The financial sector was likewise undergoing a revolution. At first, the technologies were applied to front-end operations and customer service. But now automated smart trading was in full swing. Traders were becoming merely a safeguard against machine error, not that the over-engineered software needed much oversight. The only real role any of us traders now played was in curating and calibrating our models and ...