What's up: Energy-hungry tech companies told to pony up to improve power grid; AI is wrecking an already fragile job market; Allstate CEO prepares for quantum computing.

Good morning. Given the massive disruption that AI is causing in everything from the workforce to the energy sector, it’s amazing that there is any air left in the room for quantum computing, still years from maturation.

“I think the reason we're getting in early is because the pace of change is unknown. It could be quick. And if it's quick, you don't want to be behind,” said Allstate Chief Executive Tom Wilson, one of several hundred attendees gathered at the Global Quantum Forum in Chicago last week. He said the company is hiring quantum experts now, to stay ahead of the curve. More on his plans below.

The state has invested $500 million in the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a planned campus on an old U.S. Steel site on Chicago’s south side that will house a number of different private and public labs for quantum and advanced microelectronics research and development.

More on quantum and the intensifying waves of AI disruption below.

WSJLI: Why are you currently investing in quantum computing ?

Wilson: We've been paying attention to it for a while. The reason we decided to lean in now is I don't think you can predict the pace of change here and it's just going to happen fast. If you said, 'Are we going to use quantum in our business in the next two years?", I would say "No." But the reason we're getting in early is because the pace of change is unknown. It could be quick. And if it's quick, you don't want to be behind.

WSJLI: What, if anything, are you doing with quantum computing today?

Wilson: We're hiring people to really just focus on quantum and see what we can learn. We're trying to get up to about 10, which is minuscule for us in terms of a company, but large relative to the people who know quantum.

WSJLI: Looking ahead, how will you use quantum computing for a competitive advantage?

Wilson: There's just some unique problems we can solve. I think it'll be useful in predicting weather-related losses for houses. We have, for example, digital images of every house in America. And so if I combine that with all kinds of weather data, I believe quantum computing could help us get the right price for every house. It would just run billions of simulations. More accurate pricing is a huge advantage for us as a company in terms of better serving our customers and making more money. I can make a much more specific offer to you based on who you are.

Financial institutions have experimented with quantum technology for years because any incremental improvements in computing can make huge differences to a bank’s bottom line. Now Marco Pistoia, the former head of JPMorgan Chase’s applied research group, is moving to quantum company IonQ where he will serve as senior vice president of industry relations, CNBC reports. The bank last week named State Street’s global head of digital technology, Rob Otter, to replace Pistoia.

Energy companies want tech to pony up. Utilities are asking tech companies including Google, Microsoft and Amazon to pay more to connect their new data centers to the power grid. Utility officials are concerned that the cost of new power infrastructure needed to serve data-center demand could raise rates for regular customers.

👉 U.S. power companies are already charging more to cover a surge in spending to upgrade the aging grid, address risks related to climate change and support drivers of power demand such as data centers and electric vehicles. 

AI is already wrecking an already fragile job market for college grads. A yearslong white-collar hiring slump and recession worries have weakened that contract. Artificial intelligence now threatens to break it completely, the WSJ reports. 

With each new class after 2020, an ever-smaller share of graduates is landing jobs that require a bachelor’s degree, according to a Burning Glass Institute analysis of labor data. And unemployment among recent college graduates is now rising faster than for young adults with just high-school or associate degrees.

And speaking of disruption, check this out. Apple's iCloud storage and other subscriptions, paid apps and app advertising, as well as payments related to web search, as a group, have quintupled since 2015. Now those services, the driver of Apple's exploding valuation, are under threat, the WSJ reports.

Google DeepMind earned a gold-medal score at the International Mathematical Olympiad by perfectly solving five of the six problems. No AI model has hit that level of results at the IMO, the most prestigious competition for young mathematicians.

Here's the WSJ's Ben Cohen on why it's a big deal for AI models. 

At the same time, let’s hear it for the humans. Some 26 students got higher scores on the IMO exam than Google or OpenAI, who also claimed gold despite not participating in the official event.

AI code-writing tools are starting to add a new dimension to the IT vendor-customer relationship. The tools make it easier and less expensive for businesses to shift their data from one provider to another, the Information reports, a capability that could provide customers with a more leverage with negotiating for better contracts, Meanwhile some providers, looking to poach new customers from rivals are actually providing those tools, for free, the Information says.

IT failure leads to groundings at Aeroflot. The Russian airline company blamed an IT failure after it cancelled or delayed at least 50 flights into and out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport Monday. Bloomberg reports that Russia has opened an investigation into a cyberattack.

Design software-maker Figma bumped up the price range for its upcoming IPO to $30-32, up from $25-28.

Federal Reserve officials expect they will need to resume lowering interest rates eventually—they just aren’t ready to do so Wednesday. (WSJ)

The Trump administration is considering a plan to raise tens of billions of dollars with a new fee that would transform the patent system, a radical move that would likely fuel pushback from businesses. (WSJ)

A lone shooter killed four people on Monday evening at a Midtown office building, including an executive from financial firm Blackstone and a New York City police officer. (WSJ)

The Gaza Strip is experiencing famine conditions, a group of global food-insecurity experts said, the most dire assessment of the enclave’s deepening hunger crisis since the war began. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.