We're heading for the singularity, the confluence of technologies into a critical moment. Depending on who wins, that moment will affect everything we do and will transform humanity into something else entirely. Prof. Yuval Noah Harari has given a glimpse of that transformation in his book Homo Deus. But the actual reality may be more grim because the age of nationalism has returned, if it ever really left, and countries like China and Russia are eager to weaponize the technology while in the US people at Google resign for assisting their own government.
The likely scenario is that the Chinese win this race because they pump a lot of assets into developing strategic capabilities on a different playing field from the Americans. Their goal is pervasive surveillance but increasingly see how this power can be leveraged internationally as well. It's futile to compete with Putin and Trump in the nuclear race or with the US Navy in who has most carriers. But in the cultural space, the traditional US has been forced into a giant retreat with the defeat of the establishment at the hands of extreme nationalists and foreign interests who force their narratives and corrupt the debate. The role of AI in that has been relatively minimal, limited to the relatively dumb algorithms that facebook provides through its ads interface. But even these limited means begat Trump.
What happens on social media now is a national security concern for all nations. Hostile powers and special interest groups can pay to sway the mindset of a large enough section of the electorate. That isn't fantasy, it's replicable technology and has been used to dramatic effect.
Quantum computing then is about AI and AI are the self learning algorithms that the last Google IO conference dazzled us with. Once a few more years of such algorithms develop and meet the power of quantum computing, personalized content can be crafted for each of us individually. Whomever controls that process controls culture itself on a fundamental level and can manipulate our identities and loyalties on a psychological level. We're obviously already there on a very coarse level but as technologies improve, the targeting becomes more acute.
When I first watched house of cards, the first season, it seemed slightly ridiculous. Just too unlikely. But reality is far more ridiculous and unlikely though.
If humanity is to win, liberalism has to prevail: the space where culture will be created has to remain a commons, a free market of ideas and content not dominated by any single power above all else not one concerned only with its own survival. It'll be an epic battle.