Chief Commercial Officer at QuEra Computing - the scientific and commercial leader in neutral-atom quantum supercomputers.
When I wake up in a hotel room and it takes me a minute to remember what city I’m in, it’s a sign of too much travel. September has been such a month – a conference every week. They were all individually interesting: HPC Forum in Virginia, our global partner meeting in Boston, Quantum World Congress in Virginia (again), and then Q2B Paris. But taken together, it was a bit much. Having said that, the great thing about conferences is that they provide unfiltered access to market information. I always loved that when I was head of product management years ago: you can’t truly understand the world from behind a web browser; you have to go out and talk to the people who are fighting the daily fights with their qubits. So, what is the state of quantum? A few personal observations from all this time in “the field”. Part 1 below. Part 2 tomorrow. Quantum is still primarily a scientific instrument. Scientists are using quantum computers to explore interesting scientific questions. Reports such as “string breaking” and “exotic phases of matter” are indeed moving condensed matter physics and other topics forward. There is also plenty of research into quantum itself: better qubits, new error correction methods, improved algorithms. Can quantum computing bring true value today to enterprise innovators – beyond workforce development, learning, experimentation, and preparing for future generations of quantum computers? Probably not. You can argue if the HSBC bond trading results were significant or accept Scott Aaronson’s critique of them. You can spot occasional tightly bound areas where quantum seems to have some advantages over classical machine learning methods. But as a whole, the answer is: while an enterprise should engage in quantum to prepare for the future, significant business value is not there today. To paraphrase a famous scene from “When Harry Met Sally,” if someone tells me that true quantum value is happening now, I’d like to drink what they’ve been drinking. Competition is starting to form. It was fun while it lasted – a nascent industry where everyone was just hoping to grow the pie together. We’re starting to see firms directly contradicting what other vendors of the same quantum modality are saying. I sat through a presentation by a photonics vendor that primarily focused on their well-funded competitor without explicitly saying their name. Many of us came out of the presentation thinking that this well-funded competitor is “living rent-free in the head” of the presenting company. Though some of the innocent early days are gone, this is still a tremendously exciting and fascinating market to be in. HPC managers are taking notice. Just look at the agenda of recent “HPC User Forum” events. Quantum topics used to be a 20-minute panel. Now they are half-day, front-and-center discussions. The industry is truly moving from “one day” to “Day One.” What do you think? What have I forgotten or gotten wrong about these takes?
Murray Thom
1mo
I think the key perspective you’re missing is that these comments are about gate model quantum computing, rather than quantum computing in general.
Robert Sutor
1mo
Leave a Post-it note on the bedside table with the name of the city you are in so you will see it when you wake up.
Quantum computing carries huge expectations. Meeting them requires transparency and a no-BS mindset. Thanks, Yuval Boger, for voicing it clearly.
Very interesting takes Yuval Boger and references! I do agree about the competition getting less friendly, and I think that having stricter benchmarks to compare systems (especially within the same modality) would help avoid vendors doing subjective comparisons themselves, and free up the space in their head. So a question that i'd like to ask you: who's to make these benchmarks?
Interesting article. But I firmly believe quantum is here and can be as effective as any other technology. Wheather is advantage over classical or not existing processes and techniques can be elegantly put together to form a quantum solution that archives the purpose. Here we need to understand no technology is universal and will serve all purpose tool to solve all kinds of problems . Existing quantum computers and algorithmic techniques can solve problems if they are carefully engineered keeping limitations as constrints. I discovered the same while designing quantum algorithms for SMOTE , Imputation and Optimisation problems. And within today's limitations they run well. Thus quantum is not future it's now 😊🙏
Chief Commercial Officer at QuEra Computing - the scientific and commercial leader in neutral-atom quantum supercomputers.
1moPart 2 is now here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yuvalboger_continued-from-yesterday-when-i-wake-activity-7381343000280510464-4jLW (LinkedIn character limit made me split the post into two)