Andy Rubin is not only the co-founder of Android, but also the man who ignited Google's robotics efforts.
He did leave Google in 2014, but that does not make him less of a presence in the field of cutting-edge technology.
Rubin recently gave a talk at Bloomberg's Tech Conference in San Francisco, where he pointed out the possibilities stemming from merging AI advancements and quantum computing. The biggest promise of such a marriage would be conscious intelligence capable of powering up every piece of technology.
"If you have computing that is as powerful as this could be, you might only need one," Rubin says.
He goes on to say that the entity "just has to be conscious." Not ominous at all, right?
Rubin controls the Playground Global investment fund, which bets on companies that put every effort into transforming this idea into a reality. One of the purposes of the fund is to offer support to companies that are testing new ways of how computing can interact with the real world.
The AI expert notes that there are quantum computing firms that are almost ready to build consumer-ready quantum devices. The big news is that such companies will use today's manufacturing processes.
By tapping into the probabilistic nature of atoms and molecules, quantum computing is able to deliver exponential boosts in processing power, something that traditional hardware evolution cannot provide. Moore's law, among other limitations, can be bypassed by dwelling in the potential of quantum computing.
Rubin estimates that the next big thing will be a mélange of quantum computing, robotics and AI.
He mentions that the blooming growth of AI in the consumer sector will be data-dependent. This means that companies that will learn how to use robots to gather data from the real world will get an edge over their competitors. He makes clear that those who are foolish enough to rely on cloud data alone will get "trapped in the cloud."
"Robots ... can sense their environment and interact and learn from those interactions," Rubin affirms.
Another opportunity arises from the blending of AI and quantum computing because both are great pattern matching tools, with high ability to complement one another.
During the conference, Rubin addressed more ardent concerns, such as encryption. The technology veteran also pacified the audience, assuring them that the scenarios of Skynet coming online are farfetched.
"You should be worrying about what it means to compute at these magnitudes," Rubin notes.
