On 23rd of October, Google announced that it had achieved a long-sought breakthrough called ‘’quantum supremacy’’. Its new device solved a mathematical calculation in just 3 minutes 20 seconds compared to what today’s best computers could not complete in under 10,000 years. This event was marked by the New York Times as comparable with the achievement of the Wright Brother’s first plane flight, meaning that this had marked the start of a new movement that can revolutionize in today’s practices.
But what separates quantum computing from traditional computers? The answer is simple, a quantum computer can perform certain calculations faster than any computer can do. The difference lies in how quantum computing operates. In classical computers, bits are stored as either a 0 or a 1 in binary notation. However, Quantum computers make use of quantum bits — or qubits — which can be both 0 and 1, meaning that computations can be solved simultaneously. There are much optimism and reliance that quantum computing can solve many of today’s questions.
For example, scientists are excited about the emergence of quantum computing as it allows precise simulations that are not possible today. John Preskill (2018), director of the Institute for Quantum Information at Caltech, is confident that quantum computing would be able to efficiently simulate any process that occurs in Nature. It can be used to explore fundamental physics in new ways, for example by simulating the properties of elementary particles, or the quantum behavior of a black hole, or the evolution of the universe right after the big bang.
On the other hand, quantum computing also has many other use cases. In 2017, IBM established its ‘’Q network’’, a cloud-computing service that lets clients use the firm’s quantum computers. IBM aims to provide companies such as financial institutions to solve the uncertainty and constrained optimization they face daily. For example, IBM has estimated that financial institutions are losing between $10 and $40 billion in revenue a year due to fraud and poor data management. Using quantum computing, these institutions can replace their inaccurate fraud detection systems using analytical models that shift through behavioral data much faster. Another instance is trading optimization. Institutions can gain a first-mover advantage that would realize new arbitrage opportunities much quicker through many potential scenarios using simulations. Just imagine what implications it can have on the financial markets.
As a result of these possibilities, many large companies are heavily interested in this technology. In 2019 alone, investments in start-ups from companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Intel alone have exceeded $450 billion. Not only are large companies highly interested, governments too are dedicated to developing this technology. The previous year, China spent more than $400 million on the creation of a national quantum lab. At the same time, the American government promised to spend $1,2 billion on quantum research. Visibly, quantum computing has become an important subject for many organizations.
However, the Economist has stated that the emergence of quantum computing is still yet to be commercialized and used on a large-scale. The first relevant applications expected are to be launched within two or three years. Please let me know what you think what the implications of quantum computing may have on society. Do you think that quantum computing can have such a big effect on society or is it something that its potential is being exaggerated?
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/09/26/commercialising-quantum-computers
https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2018-08-06-79/pdf/
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2405428318300571?token=90D455E50E62F3579A5CB5D40E8B3E4C0072F279DB26008F386865C19887322A61681A145EDA298C59C95F0A5074523E
https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/report/exploring-quantum-financial
Hi Ting,
Thank you for this indepth article on Quantum Computers. Although the announcement of Google was widely shared throughout the media, since then there has been relatively little coverage on what this breakthrough really means for the developments of quantum computing or computing in general.
I remember watching the video with Bob Sutor, vice president of IBM. He believes Quantum Computers will become the most important computing technology of this century. However, we are still far from there. Google’s claim of their quantum computer having achieved Quantum supremacy might also have been a bit too early. The claim has been attacked by other industry players. IBM for example, said that the exact calculation could be done by “classic” super computers in less than 3 days (way less if fine tuned). This is far less than the 10,000 years Google claimed.
Was it just a great marketing move from Google?
Well, it was definitely a great marketing move, as Google received great positive publicity all over the world. Time will tell whether their achievement actually has the value they claim it to have. Maybe soon Quantum computers are able to perform tasks that are out of reach for super computers. Atleast for now it was a great demonstration of the current stage of Quantum computing development. Hopefully we see more in the near future.
Hi Tim,
Thank you for your comment on my post about quantum computing. I too believe that its potential is endless and may solve many of today’s mysteries. However, I also agree with you that it is still too soon and I believe that there are downsides to it too. There are always organizations that use a certain technology for their own gains and to exploit it without sharing it with others. Hopefully, this time it is different and the technology will be widely shared and adopted by many organizations ranging from non-profit to governmental organizations.
Hi Ting, very nice blog post! I think you raised an important awareness of the potential of quantum computing. I think the implications for society can be vast! Indeed, the use cases that you mentioned will provide great value for businesses. In my opinion, the biggest effect will probably be in healthcare. By using the power of quantum computers, personalized medicine can be created fairly easily. In addition, finding cures to diseases that are incurable today will significantly impact our lives.
Furthermore, I think that a lot of use cases that will have a big impact are still unknown. Think about when the computer was invented and compare that with the internet and the emergence of Google and Facebook nowadays. Back then, we couldn’t have predicted that social media would be a huge use case! Let’s explore these exciting possibilities!
Hi Rick,
Thank you for your comment reply on this post! I completely agree that the use-cases of quantum computing are yet unknown. I also believe that we may underestimate its implications it can on society as well. Personally, I have not read what its potential is on medicine, but reading what scientists believe it can have in physics, I also believe that it definitely will have a strong impact on how medicine is developed. It may speed up the process significantly which is something that is really relevant today and certainly in the future as well.