We asked IBM Quantum’s director about the reality of the current state of quantum computing.
The promise of quantum computers appears to be that they will upend modern computing as we know it. With exceptional computational power, they’ll be performing feats unimaginable for any classical supercomputer.
The reality of quantum computers hasn’t quite lived up to its hype, however. Claims of “quantum advantage”—problems regular computers can’t solve but quantum computers can—draw criticism from both skeptics and enthusiasts in the field. Certainly, we’ve seen genuinely impressive advancements, both theoretical and experimental, but many have been contrived “feats” with little real-world applicability.
I’m inching toward becoming an enthusiast. But even for me, parsing through the—let’s face it—sometimes overhyped noise feels tiresome and pointless. So let’s take a step back. What will quantum technology really do for us? How far have we come? And how should we handle the flow of PR on the sixth so-called ultimate quantum breakthrough of the week? To discuss these questions (or rather, to sift through the noise), Gizmodo traveled uptown to IBM’s Manhattan office to chat with Jerry Chow, director of IBM Quantum. The following conversation has been slightly edited for grammar and clarity.
Gayoung Lee, Gizmodo: Okay, imagine I’m someone who is just like, “Oh, quantum computing is a load of nonsense.” Why should I care at all about quantum advantage?
Jerry Chow: In the end, I think our goal is to bring useful quantum computing to the world. And a big part of quantum computing is that we have the opportunity to build differentiating computation over what exists today. There’s a mathematical statement to that, or there are provable algorithms that really show that quantum computing can really [outperform] classical computing, like factoring large numbers for breaking encryption or simulating very complex molecular structures, the Grover’s algorithm, and all that pen-and-paper provable direction.
But another question is, what can we do with the things that people are already building? That’s very far apart from saying that there’s an advantage for a particular kind of problem, or it’s an advantage in terms of being better than all classical techniques that you might throw at it. When you want to solve a problem, you have at your disposal the GPUs, CPUs, all the world’s computers, and all the world’s algorithms to throw at that problem, right?
Quantum advantage, really, is that we can now use quantum computing plus what we have available to us—classical resources—to solve a problem cheaper, faster, or more accurately.
