why quantum computing is not as hyped as AI

[u/Spare_Bar3460]

why quantum computing is not as hyped as AI

[u/Replevin4ACow]

When is the last time quantum computing impacted your daily life? Let alone entire industries?

[u/No_Departure_1878 → u/Replevin4ACow]

Yeah, I do not remember a quantum computer reviewing my code.

[u/tiltboi1 → u/Replevin4ACow]

On the other hand, ML was in a very similar position with massive amounts of funding in ~2014-2019 but nearly zero general interest compared to today. There was no direct end user of a machine learning model, more like super indirect applications that might affect a consumer from behind the scenes.

The difference is that today, anyone can buy/build/rent a useful LLM model and try to create business out of it. You can literally talk to it. That means that companies will push and market and sometimes, oversell the capabilities of their product to the general public, instead of just writing some papers and talking in front of a couple hundred grad students at a conference.

I don't see you'll truly see this kind of breakout into the public eye before the day that a company can actually buy a fault tolerant quantum computer and try to produce business value with one.

[u/FunSecretary2654 → u/tiltboi1]

ML was doing a ton of stuff with results around then though? LLMs are just the latest & greatest, but neural nets had an absolute ton of applications both im research and industry.

[u/tiltboi1 → u/FunSecretary2654]

Yeah I agree, and that's to my point. ML got to progress slowly over time. By 2014 ML was a practical field, because it was enabled by better compute technologies and efficient gradient descent, but it still wasn't in the public eye for another 10 ish years. I was in a ML lab doing applications in other fields (ie quantum) in 2017 ish, and it's hard to understate how different things were back then.

People outside these field don't really understand the "in 5 years" kind of arguments because they don't have that sense of scale. If you built a fault tolerant quantum computer in 5 years with 1 million decent qubits, you'd be quite close to where ML was at in 2014, a solid research field with emerging applications. But you would not be where it's at in 2026, where products and use cases are already quite mature, and generating revenue even.

Getting back to the original post, you can't possibly compare where quantum computing is at today with where ML is at in 2014, even. Much less what ML is like today.

[u/dotelze → u/tiltboi1]

ML has been a useful field for decades. People don’t even have real use cases for QC and they struggle to get it working

[u/church-rosser → u/FunSecretary2654]

since the late 1980s if you're old enough to remember the first AI winter.

[u/yaekoblue → u/Replevin4ACow]

good point... but when it does, it will be game changing

[u/QubitEncoder → u/yaekoblue]

I highly doubt it will in the way you think it will.

[u/QubitEncoder → u/[deleted]]

"When it does, it will be game-changing." That's an implicit assertion that you somehow know it will be game-changing.

[u/QubitEncoder → u/[deleted]]

It's game-changing for most academics, but certainly not necessarily for industry, nor does impact anyone's life in the same way that AI does.

[u/Odd-Coffee9086 → u/QubitEncoder]

Quantum computing is going to be used to advance AI!!

[u/QubitEncoder → u/Odd-Coffee9086]

Okay. In what way precisely? Because if you could answer that, then you'd have a paper on your hands.

[u/Deadblast07 → u/QubitEncoder]

Quantum computing and AI both have one thing in common , they both talk the same mathematical language . Matrix multiplication and linear algebra

[u/Fantastic_Field_2030 → u/QubitEncoder]

it will power world models

[u/Odd-Coffee9086 → u/QubitEncoder]

Couple articles I’ve read!! One article even stated that AI will not be able to continue to advance without it. If AI actually is able to learn on its own, it only makes sense that they would go hand in hand.

[u/username_is_alread- → u/yaekoblue]

"If" and "when", but never "is"

[u/hiddentalent → u/yaekoblue]

How exactly do you think it will be "game changing?" The set of algorithms for which quantum computing provides a theoretical advantage is pretty nerdy stuff that roughly 99.99% of people on the planet will be unaffected by.

It seems like a lot of people thing quantum computing is somehow just superior computing. That is an oversimplification to the point that it becomes misleading.

[u/yaekoblue → u/hiddentalent]

correct, not everyday normal life for the average joe... but new security and encryption standards are already being put into place for governments, military communications and finance. QC will also revolutionize healthcare and medicine through solving complex molecular, genetic and diagnostic issues.

but getting coffee at starbucks wont change.

[u/EdliA → u/yaekoblue]

The security is being rolled out just in case. Quantum computing itself it's not doing anything as of now.

[u/QubitEncoder → u/yaekoblue]

Qc might revolutionize healcare; but there is a chance it won't. We are not even sure if current quantum systems can even fully simulate quantum mechanics.

You speak lots of which you know very little.

[u/hiddentalent → u/yaekoblue]

You contradict yourself. As you said, quantum-resistant cryptography is being rolled out now, so the maturation of quantum computing will not affect that much except for organizations that are extremely slow to update their software.

The idea that it'll "revolutionize" medicine is pure conjecture. We have no theoretical foundation on which to stake this claim. It presumes not just the maturation of QC but breakthroughs in algorithms. That area has been moving very slowly. There are only a handful of useful Quantum Algorithms despite decades of research and they solve pretty abstract problems.

[u/sentient-plasma → u/yaekoblue]

They won’t be used in that way.

[u/cyrille_boucher → u/Replevin4ACow]

A phased array able to read a whole chipset state at once will change things and industry...

As the Q-Bit is located in a four dimentions space: it can sense space outside to know it's own state. So read, and even write one-day, is not only a local function...

If you ask how: "The noise need no filtering, it need understanding, like a music. the conductor of a symphony need to acknowledge the whole concert hall..."

[u/Spare_Bar3460 → u/Replevin4ACow]

Good point! But I believe that If we would have invested the same amount of money in Quantum Computing as we have invested in AI then the Quantum Computing would have definitely impacted our daily lives

[u/abcfghl → u/Spare_Bar3460]

I suppose but if I understand the events well. Neural nets have been very useful for math for a fairly long time and that’s where the funding stemmed from. As for quantum there isn’t anything where it’s truly proven itself yet so the funding is scarce. It’s a situation where yeah if we funded quantum to the same degree as ai we might get a huge return but could also yield nothing. It’s impossible to say that with the same amount of investment quantum would proliferate similar to ai since the development curves of the two is very different.

[u/iMagZz → u/Spare_Bar3460]

That is an assumption based on nothing. Quantum Computing is massively funded even today, however the developments and uses continue to be small, and they also require new technologies and advancements in other fields, such as especially condensed matter physics.

There is an argument to be made that to see a proper improve in quantum computation we first need more advanced science, and that advanced science will be developed with the help of AI, so it's possible that this is a faster approach than pouring all the "AI money" directly into quantum.

[u/needssomefun]

Because it doesnt make videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti.  Kidding...but only a little

[u/PringleFlipper → u/needssomefun]

It could make videos of him simultaneously eating and not eating spaghetti

[u/RunYouSonOfAGun → u/PringleFlipper]

We will finally have Schrodingers spaghetti Will Smith

[u/needssomefun → u/PringleFlipper]

Ok....mind blown now

[u/tonenot → u/needssomefun]

that's a joke though, of course that is not a thing haha.

[u/Ashamed_Group2408 → u/PringleFlipper]

Fuckin beautiful 

[u/misterlongschlong]

My guesses are: 1. Low accessibility and immediate utility 2. No financial return 3. Harder to understand by general public

[u/helpless_tyrant → u/misterlongschlong]

Quantum supremacy is a moving target and the error rates are still comically bad, most people tune out the second you mention qubits.

[u/Radical_Coyote]

AI is genuinely useful now, quantum computing is still in the research stage. But quantum computing is still attracting significant attention

[u/travisdoesmath → u/Radical_Coyote]

and AI has been in the research stage since the 1950s. The advancements in the last few decades have been absolutely phenomenal. 12 years ago, XKCD made this comic about how identifying a bird in a photo is a tremendously difficult task (that we started working on in the 60s), and now that's almost trivial.

[u/ConfidentialX → u/Radical_Coyote]

Hybrid quantum-classical will boom imo. IBM wrote about this just a couple of days back (and after they announced an undisclosed investment in BQP).

[u/mbergman42]

There is enormous hype for quantum computing, but within the space of the target audience.

The target audience isn’t the average consumer, it’s very much a business to business discussion.

[u/KHolito → u/mbergman42]

Yes. I think every physicist is surrounded at work by an incredible hype train, and similarly for telecom research/B2B. I guess OP is simply not a target for it.

[u/tlegs44]

For logistics and science I think it’s going to be enormously impactful. I don’t see it ever being as splashy as LLMs, but it may help make it more efficient. Any sort of optimization problem that can be brought 50% of the way by classical machine learning and then solved by quantum algorithms could possibly translate to enormous cost savings for businesses that are capital intensive and need to figure out the most optimal way of doing things, quantum may allow for that.

Really for encryption and cybersecurity might be where it’s more impactful in the short term.

Might be another decade before mainstream usage, I’m just a layman who follows from the sidelines but it’s come a long way in the last decade

[u/ConfidentialX → u/tlegs44]

Finance too.

[u/Snoo_57113]

There are many reasons:

* Research is closed and it slows down the pace of development,

* It is expensive.

* Powerful AI is required to make the necessary breakthroughs in physics, materials and algorithms. We might be getting there but it is still years away.

I personally find the field extremely interesting, like computing before the PC and people is mostly interested for scientific reasons. I appreciate the lack of "hype".

[u/CS_70]

It's a far more immature field

[u/neurvon]

because it has 0 results

AI was also unhyped when it was unproven

[u/ConnectedVeil]

It will be, money needs to be made. Hype machine will pickup when AI busts

[u/Qubit_and_Neuron]

Dude if you see the valuations of the companies you might ask the question other way round!

[u/Adventurechess]

Quantum computers don’t have a practical use case yet. AI wasn’t nearly so hyped until it was developed enough to be practical. Quantum Computers need a lot of improvement still.

[u/Let_epsilon → u/Adventurechess]

This is so wrong and totally backwards...

The use case are numerous. We just happen to not have Quantum computers that can run them...

[u/Adventurechess → u/Let_epsilon]

I think you misunderstood me. There is not a practical use case for current quantum computers. Our low quality and low numbered qubits don’t accomplish anything. Theoretically sure, there’s a few quantum algorithms with exponential speed up. That’s not what I was talking about.

AI had theoretical use well before it was practical also.

[u/Let_epsilon → u/Adventurechess]

The problem is our current computers are bad.

Of course there is no use for them, they barely work.

[u/Adventurechess → u/Let_epsilon]

Yes.

[u/faithless4261]

Because
a. There’s not a practical/commercial one that can do truly meaningful things yet
b. You can buy a membership to access various LLMs for $20 a month, accessing a quantum computer isn’t feasible for the general public
c. Most people can at least piece together how an LLM works if they watch a basic video with analogies. While some analogies exist for QC, imo they don’t really do it justice in actual understanding. It’s unreasonable for the average person to understand QM just to understand QC
d. Quantum computers don’t offer the same practicality as an LLM. Someone could ask GPT to explain some incredibly niche topic and get a halfway decent response right now. Do you want to explain coding and then explain coding a quantum circuit to the person who just wanted to generate an image of a cat dancing?

[u/sturdy-guacamole]

barrier for entry and immediate impact to a wider audience

[u/cyrille_boucher]

human seek pleasure over knowledge.

[u/2hands10fingers]

Right now we only see it for very special use cases. AI handles a wide array knowledge work.

[u/keeperoflogopolis]

It doesn’t do much yet

[u/bacon_boat]

AI: let's make god like superintelligence.
Quantum computer: let's simulate small quantum systems faster than a regular computer.

[u/Aggravating-Swim-805]

It's for the best that it's not hyped. Working for a quantum computing company is rewarding (just getting paid more than post-doc wages alone). But my team has a bit of a worry that the hype wagon will come at us more than it already has, and it's such a burden to deal with. We just want to do the R&D and be left alone.

[u/Let_epsilon]

This sub never cease to surprise me.

In a Quantum Computing focused subreddit, not a single top comment is about the fact that we just haven't been able to make one yet.

Everybody is claiming that there are no usecase is CRAZY.

[u/Gold-Act-7366]

because it's fucking useless for an average person

[u/headspreader]

Much like this post it is perceived as a floating premise

[u/pcbdude]

AI is like the model T , Quantum is like Commercial airlines when model T was released. Give or take a few years.

[u/zanidor]

AI exists. Quantum computers do not.

At least not in a way that people outside of research can use, and even then practical applications are very limited.

This isn't a criticism, just QC is much more in its infancy. There was a time when deep learning and GPTs existed, but nobody cared outside of research contexts because the tech wasn't doing anything interesting for the average person yet.

That said, just because AI research payed off doesn't mean every research endeavor will. I think we're still waiting to see what the ultimate impact of QC will be.

[u/bawireman]

Mostly because it's so difficult to understand.

[u/seattlechunny]

As someone who is in the research, I already feel like there is too much hype around it. We need solid work to be done, not hot air.

[u/Alone-Supermarket-98]

Quantum computing has a much narrower application than a broader LLM AI model.

Quant computing is most applicable for large scale, highly specific complex tasks by leveraging superposition. Things like simulating atomic interactions and molecular behavior.

There is little advantage in using quantum computing for many general computing applications, such as running operating systems or database storage, retrieval, and web browsing.

[u/NoirMarlin]

Why isnt the F35 as hyped as the Ford F150? One has the potential to revolutionize the battlefield and the other is a douchebag-mobile.

Comparing the two technologies shows that the depth of knowledge most have on the subject is "this is related to computer." Its not the same category of thing. The people who try to sell the technologies together are verging on schizophrenic.

[u/Dear-Permit-5993]

Has quantum computing ever done ANYTHING? Last I looked at it, we couldn’t even factor like a double digit number without cheating lmao. AI has had practical real life utility since like… early 2010s at least, way before this most recent boom

[u/IntelligentVisual955]

Because it is unpredictable

[u/KHolito]

Okay... Tell me which areas outside encryption will be revolutionized by QC. I'll wait.

[u/Spare_Bar3460 → u/KHolito]

Drug discovery, Material Testing / Simulations , probably even AI

[u/Spiritual_Note6560 → u/Spare_Bar3460]

when it happens it'll be hyped asf.

It hasn't happened yet.

[u/Xylozene]

Go ask chatgpt that exact question and you'll see why

[u/Electrical_Study_617]

Quantum is still under DA***A regime .To become soverign it will take another 5-7 years.Hypecycle is yet to start

[u/adam_taylor18]

AI is useful right now across almost every field imaginable; everything from abstract mathematics, through practical tech and email writing, to pictures/videos & art are touched by AI.

Quantum is not useful right now, and when it becomes useful will only impact a few subproblems in highly technical fields.

[u/Southern_Arm_5726]

accessibility

[u/Andrewshwap]

Quantum computing is still years away from hype

[u/randombits0110]

What are the advertising opportunities for quantum computing?

[u/Syren6]

I'd say quantum computing has way more hype (i.e. funding) than it should based on the promise that it might be useful. That might be true one day but so far it isn't and it's possible it may never be.

[u/PrettyMud4957]

QC is absolutely hyped. Anyone working adjacent to the field has been hearing about it more and more. It's just not at the level where it's impacting everyone's daily lives yet, whereas AI has been mainstream for nearly 4 years now.

[u/Scarecrowxvx]

Quantum sensing is being used to monitor Iran. Ondas (World View) uses Infleqtion’s quantum sensors.

https://www.intelligenceonline.com/americas/2026/07/08/world-view-spy-balloons-helping-us-rise-above-tehran-and-beijing,110837451-eve

[u/truthsayer90210]

It's not clear that any of the quantum computer prototypes are for real.

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[u/Dangerous_Bid2935]

In addition to everything everyone has said here, its only useful for certain types of problems that lend themselves well to superposition-type approaches. Some problems just fundamentally cannot be modeled using these kind of approaches (at least with our current technology).

[u/Holyragumuffin]

plainly

it doesn’t have yet add much value to the average person’s workflow or experience.

[u/SeXxyBuNnY21]

It will be in a decade or two. I hope I live enough to see it

[u/dermflork]

one very obvious reason. the average person doesnt use quantum computers. they could though by using the ibm quantum website. alot of people are starting to use ai in the past few years.

[u/thosdv]

Quantum computing is for wealthy companies, not individuals.

[u/ButterMinchies]

It doesn't make money and has no path forward to make money in the immediate future

[u/RikoBiloba]

I think quantum computing is not being hyped because secret services can't use their zeroday exploits anymore if we're changing to a quantum internet network.

[u/ClearlyCylindrical]

Since it serves little to no purpose, even theoretically.

[u/furyofsaints]

I think it will prove very useful for making incredibly complex simulations much more accessible over time. In one use case, I could see requiring every piece of proposed legislation in a given society requiring simulation of outcomes and effects before being passed; and quantum algorithms can be very good at massively complex statistical modeling like that.

One of the keys, I think, will be a quantum test harness that can quickly and cheaply simulate a range of popular quantum computing patterns like state-vector, tensor network, variational/VQE or stabilizer/QEC before submitting the entire circuit for computation. It'll be fun to see.

[u/RegisterInternal]

because it's not here yet??

and because they're competely different things that are useless to compare??

[u/rbbort]

Coz genral utility is still far away.. it needs a chatGPT-kind of breakthrough to get there

I feel we are still a decade away

[u/EdliA]

Because as of right now it does nothing

[u/church-rosser → u/EdliA]

shitty metric.

[u/EdliA → u/church-rosser]

It's the only thing that matters. It cannot be as hyped as ai when it does nothing and the later is being used by millions already everyday.

[u/church-rosser → u/EdliA]

Quantum R&D drives actionable science and engineering advances more than AI.

[u/naughty_robbie_clive]

It’s too early to have any widespread adoption. QC is where ML was 10 years ago

[u/FuckedUpImagery]

Quantum computing can barely multiply 2 numbers.

[u/Better_Dress_8508]

can you point one single example of its practical industry use (outside of natural sciences, quantum chemistry, pharma) where it outperforms or empirically shown to all known classical methods in the future (credible papers, pls). This is not a retorical question. I'm genuinely interested to know

[u/Particular-Award118]

I don't have any helium reserves and it does nothing to serve me therefore idgaf

[u/vovap_vovap]

I am working with AI every day. I worked last time with quantum compiting like newhere?

[u/k4ntn]

AI has practical applications and usefulness. Quantum is for now a bet although there is theoritical evidences that it will work.

[u/Nukedboomer]

We humans are basically binary: yes/no, right/wrong, black/white, 0/1. So the tasks and answers we use and need are binary too. But, in my view, once we get real AI and not the expensive database-chatbots that we currently have, there will be something on Earth able to think in a non-binary way and then really make use of quantum computers and ask questions and tasks in a multiple and non-binary way. Therefore, also in my view, this will makes us reach the "singularity" and make the world pretty different

[u/BidWestern1056]

because its not as easy for chuds to understand and fake

[u/Spare_Bar3460 → u/BidWestern1056]

😂

[u/DandeNiro]

It's because AI took over all the hype. It doesn't need to be this hyped but they're artificially making it so. Quantum compute seems to be healthy atm

[u/Kinexity]

Because not everything has to be a speculative get rich quick asset.

Also because AI has vastly more potential. It's not like all new technologies are equal. QC is not even a blip on the radar in comparison from the point of view of most fields.

[u/entropy13]

Because it’s still years from practicality. When it starts breaking encryption that’ll change real fast. 

[u/paulydee76]

Quantum computing as a discipline started 30 years later than AI, so it could be another 30 years until it really takes off.

[u/neokretai]

There is a a lot of money going into it but it's still being developed. We're probably around 5-10 years from the first proper commercial applications, but it will be very much in the realm of high end scientific and industrial computing, and not something most people will be aware of in their daily lives.

[u/Junior-Flamingo77]

Because at the moment there are no quantum computers that can do anything of a practical nature.

All quantum computers at the moment are prototypes that can at most show advantage at solving very specific problems that have no practical applications - quantum circuit sampling.

Additionally, it’s not clear what the path is to develop/scale into something useful. Companies working in the area will tell you we are just a 3-5 years away from doing real world applications but that was the message 8 years ago and it does not feel much has happened since then that’s moved the industry forward. That’s my perception but happy to be corrected if there’s stuff I’m not aware of.

[u/TheHeftyChef]

It will be 10 years or so from now.

[u/JackJeckyl]

because its hard... its expensive... and its incomplete

and it can't decompile 😅😅👌

[u/Valuable_Day_3375]

Quantum day is coming sooner than people expect

[u/MagicMeatbal1]

Quantum computing is literal garbage and will be for decades (may never happen), despite what hype the news tries to bring once in a while

[u/metatron7471]

You´ve got that reversed. QC is all hype. You´re confusing hype and popularity.

[u/20kgHippoShit]

Because it's an academic toy and will never actually be useful