The questions quantum computing could help us ask again

After decades of working within the limits of classical computing, new tools could reopen problems researchers learned to put aside.

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AI and quantum computing get grouped together constantly. They appear on the same conference agendas, in the same conversations about the future, and often in the same sentence.

I understand why. Both technologies are advancing quickly, and both will change how we work. After spending most of my career in quantum physics, though, I think we’re missing one of the more interesting parts of the story.

I’ve spent years working on problems that conventional computers weren’t well suited to solve. There is a particular frustration in knowing the question you want to ask but realizing that the tools available to you can’t realistically get you to an answer.

At first, you work around the limitation. Eventually, you start choosing problems that fit the tools........

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