David Friedberg

I mean, it's very interesting.

And I think just this broad question or observation that sometimes inquisitive minds leads to research that leads to some set of discoveries that are completely not apparent until 40 years later, the effect or the impact it may have had on building an industrial field.

Like there's now quantum computing, everyone feels is on the brink

of actually achieving what people have talked about in theory for decades, but seems to be getting very close to doing it.

Where are we in quantum computing evolution today?

So what's the state?

At what point will we have, call it generally accessible and generally useful quantum computers that can do all of the amazing things everyone's kind of talked about for decades that one would be able to do with quantum computers?

Do you have a point of view on the timelines?

This is everyone's speculation and there's been more hype than reality.

In a lot of technically difficult fields like fusion energy, perhaps even quantum computing, they're seeing profound acceleration in getting to their crazy big goals on these very big technical projects because of AI.

Is AI starting to play a role in solving some of the engineering, material science, scaling, noise issues that we've seen historically in quantum computing?

And do you think that there's an acceleration underway in performance improvements because of AI?

What is your view on China and the progress that they're making in this technology versus the U.S.?

This is the topic du jour in every field, industrial field, computing, sciences.

Where's China at compared to the U.S.?

The comparisons and everyone's worried about the progress in China versus the U.S.

and what that means.

That's precisely what I've heard.

Where were you when you got the news this week that you won the Nobel Prize and how surprised were you?

Because this is a 40-year-old...