Quantum computers are there and they are real. You haven’t noticed yet

The promise of quantum computers seems to be that they will overturn modern IT as we know it. With exceptional calculation power, they will make unimaginable exploits for any classic supercomputer.

However, the reality of quantum computers has not really been up to its overhaul. Affirmations of “quantum advantage” – regular computers problems cannot resolve that quantum computers cannot – arouse criticism of skeptics and amateurs in the field. Certainly we have seen Really impressive advancedboth theoretical And experimentalBut many have been artificial “exploits” with little applicability from the real world.

I go up to become a passionate. But even for me, the analysis through the – the face is – sometimes an over -type noise is tiring and useless. So let’s step back. What will be quantum technology Really do for us? How far have we come? And how should we manage the flow of public relations on the sixth ultimate quantum breakthrough of the week? To discuss these questions (or rather, to scrink the noise), Gizmodo went to town to the Manhattan office of IBM to discuss with Jerry ChowDirector of IBM Quantum. The next conversation was slightly modified for grammar and clarity.

Gayoung Lee, Gizmodo: Okay, imagine that I am someone who says: “Oh, quantum computer science is a charge of nonsense.” Why should I care about the quantum advantage?

Jerry Chow: In the end, I think that our goal is to bring quantum IT useful to the world. And a large part of quantum computing is that we have the possibility of building differentiation calculation on what exists today. There is a mathematical declaration to this, or there are provable algorithms which really show that quantum computers can really (outdoor) classic computer science, such as taking into account large numbers to break encryption or simulate very complex molecular structures, the grover algorithm, and all that is pen and paper.

But another question is, what can we do with things that people already build? It is far from saying that there is an advantage for a particular type of problem, or it is an advantage in terms of being better than all the classic techniques that you could throw from it. When you want to solve a problem, you have GPUs, processors, all the computers in the world at your disposal and all the algorithms in the world to launch this problem, right?

The quantum advantage is really that we can now use quantum computer science more What we have at our disposal – classic resources – to solve a cheaper problem, faster or more precisely.

Gizmodo: It is completely away from this popular press hook that goes, “Quantum Computing will change computers forever!”

Food: I see more advantage quantum as something progressive. It is not that this necessarily changes everything we can calculate. This is also how many GPUs (graphic processing units) have also increased. Obviously, they have been used for games – perhaps a niche field – but they have really become important with national computer strategies by taking it from the HPC in cluster (high performance computers) and for people who study molecular structure, cosmology and high -energy physics problems that use a lot of calculation capacity. We also expect something similar, because Quantum is now an “augmented tool”.

Gizmodo: The idea of increasing is really interesting, because the two – classic and quantum computers – are intrinsically connected, right? Confirm that quantum computers work properly require cross -check using conventional computers. How do researchers exploit this relationship to their advantage?

Food: This is an absolutely important part of how it all happens. Everything is interconnected with conventional computer science. The only way we know how to experience the calculation is classic – we have put classic entries and we delete conventional entries. Quantum computers use quantum mechanics and quantum circuits to explore an exponentially large space, but at the end, we make measures that transform everything into conventional outputs that we deal with or use or use in certain parts of our calculation using other parts of our calculation arsenal. People should not fear that Quantum will replace the classic!

Gizmodo: IBM is clearly a large actor in this area, and you have been involved in his quantum research for 15 years. What are you particularly proud of in the field of achieving this approach to quantum advantage?

Food: When I started, we may have eight to ten people, very concentrated on the construction of better aircraft. Then, towards the mid -2010s, we made the decision to make what we built and put it on the cloud to remove things from the physics laboratory and in a calculation experience. Suddenly, we started to think less like turns and control tensions and more in terms of how to really use it as a calculation tool and calculation platform. Today, most of our systems are deployed in quantum data centers around the world as well as on customer locations.

And we start to see a lot of this commitment. For example, our employees From the Riken Institute to Japan uses quantum plus their HPC To study the molecular structure. Since then, we have been able to start pushing this level of energy (necessary for calculations) increasingly close to this characteristic level of what is best done conventionally, how much we really start to make these comparisons.

Gizmodo: What is an important part of IBM’s strategy in this area?

Food: Now it is not enough to build. We must derive the usefulness of quantum computers, and a large part of this is the community. We need it to really demand the need for advanced computers and work with us to find a quantum advantage and useful applications. It is a large part of our ecosystem strategy and why we have a quantum network of nearly 300 members. We are not industry experts in various verticals, but the opportunity is there to health care,, life sciencesoil and gas and energy industries.

Gizmodo: Quantum computers are therefore not really one thing about the future. They are Already here.

Food: Yes. Quantum computers are real things that are usable. Obviously, there is a lot of marketing, a lot of buzz. But also, as, literally, you can go and run quantum circuits for free on our machines on the web. There is so much to learn in terms of learning the content that exists. There is a huge community base of people to help you start. You can tell chatgpt to install Qiskit. People don’t need to feel it through marketing; Take out your hands!

Gizmodo: All right. If the quantum advantage is incremental, what is the next quantum step? What do you expect the most in the next ten, maybe five years-or even in the coming months, perhaps-for quantum computers?

Food: We are already leading to a new device that we want to present to users by the end of the year, called Nighthawk. I think that the next big step will probably be a series of milestones from an Advantage point of view, where you will see more and more “sticks” in order to execute more complex circuits using quantum computers, with a classic platform, so this back and forth during the next year. We will be deeply engaged in the high performance IT community.