Tech Pulse 2030 - Quantum + AI

Tech Pulse 2030! AI 2030! Quantum + AI 2030! Big buzzwords 2030 lol. Honestly, this one was better than any of the other Tech Pulses I have attended. Let me tell you about it.

My day started off at the Starbucks across the street, because I was early. I got this Ube foam something that was pretty good, but pretty expensive honestly. I finished writing up my blog post for the Strong Towns event. By the time I was done, it was time for me to get going. The building was the same as it usually was in, the Discovery Partners Institute, but it was under construction so it was a bit confusing on how to get in. I will say, the DPI events are usually pretty frictionless on this front, so was definitely a bit of shock.

The general vibe was about the same as it usually was: pizza, drinks, and this time I was early enough to get the wings(always so odd haha)! I did my usually thing of integrating with a group that had people I knew and met a cool dude named Alex, I think. Honestly, I was not expecting much from this Tech Pulse, it is usually buzzword central at these and Quantum + AI is SUPER buzzwordy, but I will say, this wasn’t the worst!

Of course, it started with the standard tech pulse yap; they talk A LOT at this event. As usual, the yap consisted of buzzword central. It was funny, at one point they started talking about Open infrastructure for AI, and they called this initiative “Open AI,” and I was like “come on guys, really?” After the drawn out yap, they finally got to the panel. Once again, it really wasn’t that bad at all!

I think it really has to do with the fact that quantum is so early, that the usual tech pulse hypetrain can’t drag it completely outside of the realm of reality. The panel consisted of a professor, a vc, a state official, and an IBM employee. The biggest criticism one could make is that they spent a lot of time talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars that the state of Illinios has spent on quantum, and honestly, cool I guess? Like while this one was pretty interesting, the actionable idea here was just so out of reach that I kinda felt like even if someone was leading an org and wanted to get all into quantum, this talk really showed no path to doing so(once again, this is because quantum is far too early, like there isn’t really much most anyone could do for it, right now).

Of course, I hope they move more in this direction of not being a bunch of hypebeasts, but one can only hope. Also, like all these, they need better panel moderators. Chicago tech panels suck, because Chicago panel moderators literally do not know what they are doing. This one wasn’t even the worst one, which is saying something…