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Juan Carlos López
Senior WriterAn engineer by training. A science and tech journalist by passion, vocation, and conviction. I've been writing professionally for over two decades, and I suspect I still have a long way to go. At Xataka, I write about many topics, but I mainly enjoy covering nuclear fusion, quantum physics, quantum computers, microprocessors, and TVs.
Karen Alfaro
WriterCommunications professional with a decade of experience as a copywriter, proofreader, and editor. As a travel and science journalist, I've collaborated with several print and digital outlets around the world. I'm passionate about culture, music, food, history, and innovative technologies.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella participated in Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast. During their conversation, which lasted just over an hour and a quarter, Nadella touched on several key points in the world of technology. This article examines two of them: AI developments and quantum computing. Microsoft has a lot to say about both.
Microsoft recently surprised the tech industry by announcing a new architecture for quantum computers. Majorana 1 is the first quantum processor designed to take advantage of the exotic particle theorized by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana nearly 90 years ago. More importantly, Nadella argues that this technology could enable Microsoft to develop a million-qubit quantum computer capable of solving a wide range of problems in four years.
Nadella Believes AI Developments Aren’t Being Properly Valued
AI development is advancing rapidly. Over the past two years, this technology has attracted the attention of major powers, research institutions, companies and, of course, users. And there are no signs that this trend will change—at least not in the short or medium term. Nadella emphasizes the importance of AI developments. Still, surprisingly, he argues that their progress isn’t being evaluated correctly.
“Suddenly, productivity goes up, and the economy is growing at a faster rate... The real benchmark is the world growing at 10%.”
“The big winners here are not going to be tech companies. The winners are going to be the broader industry that uses this commodity that, by the way, is abundant. Suddenly, productivity goes up, and the economy is growing at a faster rate. When that happens, we’ll be fine as an industry. But that’s to me at the moment. [We are] self-claiming some AGI milestone; that’s just nonsensical benchmark hacking to me. The real benchmark is the world growing at 10%,” Nadella said during his conversation with Patel.
There are two key takeaways from this statement. First, he tempers the enthusiasm that OpenAI and other companies have generated in the ever-controversial AGI arena. More importantly, he proposes a different metric for measuring AI development—one that assesses its direct impact on economic growth. But there’s something else, something significant: Nadella suggests that AI could drive global economic growth to 10%. Time will tell if he’s right, but it doesn’t sound far-fetched.
Image | Heisenberg Media
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