University of Kwazulu-Natal

The Quantum Leap Why 2025 Is The Year Of Quantum Awakening

Bonisiwe Shabane
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the quantum leap why 2025 is the year of quantum awakening

A Rigetti quantum computer displayed at the Nvidia GTC in October. Step aside, artificial intelligence. Another transformative technology with the potential to reshape industries and reorder geopolitical power is finally moving out of the lab: quantum. The United Nations dubbed 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. It’s been marked by a flurry of announcements — and a mountain of hype — around a mind-boggling field of science long dismissed as perpetually a decade away from usefulness. But that’s how people talked about AI, too, before ChatGPT spurred the current global arms race and investor euphoria.

From the "first light" of the world's largest sky survey to the first tipping point in renewable energy production, 2025 is likely to be remembered as a year of many firsts in the world... As the year draws to a close, we take a look at some of the biggest science stories of the year, and why they matter. After over a decade of anticipation, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory opened its shutter this year, capturing its first light from Chile. Named after the American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates, the observatory, which sports a 3,200-megapixel camera—the largest ever constructed—promises a look at the universe like never before. Unlike telescopes that focus on one target of observation at a time, the newly-opened observatory will photograph the entire visible southern sky every few nights, creating a 10-year time-lapse motion picture of the universe,...

In the annals of human history, certain years stand as inflection points—moments when the trajectory of civilization pivots toward an entirely new paradigm. 1969 gave us the moon landing. 1989 brought the World Wide Web. 2007 introduced the smartphone. Now, as we traverse the latter half of 2025, we find ourselves witnessing what may be the most profound technological transformation since the Industrial Revolution itself. What makes 2025 extraordinary is not a single breakthrough, but the convergence of multiple revolutionary technologies reaching maturity simultaneously.

Like tectonic plates shifting beneath our feet, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and human-machine integration are colliding to create something unprecedented in human experience. The UNESCO’s declaration of 2025 as the “Quantum Year”—marking the centennial of modern quantum mechanics—was prescient. But even the most optimistic futurists could not have predicted the breathtaking pace of advancement we’ve witnessed in just the first half of this year. The AI Revolution: Beyond Human Comprehension The artificial intelligence landscape of 2025 bears little resemblance to the chatbots and image generators that captured public imagination just three years ago. Today’s AI systems don’t merely process information—they reason, they synthesize, they create with a sophistication that challenges our fundamental understanding of intelligence itself.

EDRM Editor’s Note: EDRM is proud to publish Ralph Losey’s advocacy and analysis. All images in the article are by Ralph Losey using AI. Originally published on EDRM.net. This article remains the intellectual property of Ralph Losey and is shared with permission. As I sit here reflecting on 2025—a year that began with the mind-bending mathematics of the multiverse and ended with the gritty reality of cross-examining algorithms—I am struck by a singular realization. We have moved past the era of mere AI adoption.

We have entered the era of entanglement, where we must navigate the new physics of quantum law using the ancient legal tools of skepticism and verification. We are learning how to merge with AI and remain in control of our minds, our actions. This requires human training, not just AI training. As it turns out, many lawyers are well prepared by past legal training and skeptical attitude for this new type of human training. We can quickly learn to train our minds to maintain control while becoming entangled with advanced AIs and the accelerated reasoning and memory capacities they can bring. In 2024, we looked at AI as a tool, a curiosity, perhaps a threat.

By the end of 2025, the tool woke up—not with consciousness, but with “agency.” We stopped typing prompts into a void and started negotiating with “agents” that act and reason. We learned to treat these agents not as oracles, but as ‘consulting experts’—brilliant but untested entities whose work must remain privileged until rigorously cross-examined and verified by a human attorney. That put the human legal minds in control and stops the hallucinations in what I called “H-Y-B-R-I-D” workflows of the modern law office. We are still way smarter than they are and can keep our own agency and control. But for how long? The AI abilities are improving quickly but so are own own abilities to use them.

We can be ready. We must. To stay ahead, we should begin the training in earnest in 2026. Quantum computing has long sounded like science fiction, a field whispered about in research labs and often dismissed as decades away. Yet here we are in 2025, and suddenly the whispers have turned into headlines. Tech giants are racing to claim breakthroughs, startups are unveiling quantum processors with thousands of qubits, and governments are pouring billions into what many call the next industrial revolution.

So why is 2025 the year that quantum computing shifts from theory to tangible reality? To understand the hype, let’s first step back. Classical computers, the laptops and smartphones we use every day, process information in bits, either zero or one. Quantum computers, on the other hand, use qubits, which can exist as zero, one, or both simultaneously. This strange phenomenon, called superposition, means a quantum computer can crunch through problems that would take even the most powerful supercomputer thousands of years. For decades, this was a dream confined to chalkboards and lab experiments.

Qubits were unstable, fragile, and difficult to scale. But 2025 has delivered breakthroughs that change the equation. This year, we’ve seen announcements that mark a turning point. One leading company revealed a processor boasting over 1,000 qubits, a milestone once thought impossible before 2030. Another achieved a significant leap in error correction, tackling one of the biggest obstacles in making quantum machines reliable. The University committed to advancing Connecticut’s quantum economy and innovation

An aerial view of blooms across the UConn Storrs campus on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Sydney Herdle/UConn Photo) Universities throughout the world are in a new research era. UConn was no exception in 2025, a year defined by significant advancement in Connecticut’s quantum future and support for the research enterprise through a wave of shifting federal policy. While quantum and artificial intelligence drove headlines, UConn also saw innovations in health care, energy research, and much more. In the process, research continued to help propel the state’s economy and bring together leaders from across government, industry, and academia.

“We faced a year like no other, filled with unprecedented challenges to higher education and the very nature of research,” says Lindsay DiStefano, UConn’s interim vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. “Yet through every hurdle or changing circumstance, our researchers remained steadfast in their commitment to serving our students, propelling research to unparalleled levels, and supporting one another.” Quantum technologies are driving some of the most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century. They are transforming how we understand the universe and paving the way for revolutionary advancements in technology. They uncover a hidden world where particles behave in ways that challenge our everyday understanding of reality. In this quantum world, light can act as both a wave and a particle, electrons can exist in multiple places at the same time, and two particles can stay mysteriously linked no matter how...

Exploring quantum science is like discovering a new layer of reality that operates by completely different rules. To promote global collaboration and address critical challenges in science and technology, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) on 7 June, 2024,... This initiative aims to foster international partnerships, with a special focus on building capacity in the Global South, advancing gender equality in STEM fields, and tackling the growing quantum divide. The IYQ highlights the transformative potential of quantum science and its role in shaping a more inclusive and connected world. Women make up fewer than 2% of job applicants in the quantum sector, as cited in UNESCO’s 2025 factsheet on gender in science. Through a series of interactive webinars featuring leading scientists and experts, with a focus on Africa.

By launching a global contest for creative visual works that bring light and quantum science to life.

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