No FacebooQ Anytime Soon — Meta Leaders Doubt That Quantum Computing is Imminent

Insider Brief

• Meta’s leadership doesn’t believe quantum computing will be relevant to their business.
• The team also sees artificial general intelligence — AGI — as a distant threat/opportunity.
• Chief scientist Yann LeCun discussed his opinion on quantum and AGI at a recent event.

Meta’s chief scientist and deep learning expert Yann LeCun downplays the idea that quantum computing or that artificial general intelligence will have any effect on their business in the near-term, according to CNBC.

While other of Meta’s tech leading colleagues, such as Google and Microsoft, have heavily invested in quantum computing, Meta has been noticeably out of the conversation.

LeCun said quantum computing is scientifically interesting — but that’s about it.

“The number of problems you can solve with quantum computing, you can solve way more efficiently with classical computers,” LeCun said at a media event covered by CNBC.  “Quantum computing is a fascinating scientific topic. It’s less clear about the ‘practical relevance and the possibility of actually fabricating quantum computers that are actually useful.’”

Meta senior fellow and former tech chief Mike Schroepfer also said he discounts the relevance of quantum to its

According to CNBC, Schroepfer evaluates quantum technology every few years. He told CNBC that useful quantum machines “may come at some point, but it’s got such a long time horizon that it’s irrelevant to what we’re doing.”

LeCun feels similar to human-level AI systems. He believes that AGI is decades away and that humanity will be stuck at “dog-like” or “cat-like” AI for years.

The event highlighted the 10-year anniversary of its Fundamental AI Research team