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Quantum computers have the potential to carry out highly complicated calculations in minutes that would have taken classical computers thousands of years to work out. But much of the industry is still in its infancy, partly because of a lack of domain experts and software tools that match the progress of quantum hardware.

Now, companies are working to simplify the process of developing quantum software applications so programmers dont actually need to understand the underlying quantum mechanics. One of the early-stage startups making such an effort is Singapore-based Horizon Quantum Computing, whose tools can automatically construct quantum algorithms based on programs written in classical programming languages.

The company recently picked up $18.1 million in a Series A round from Tencent along with other investors, boosting its equity financing to around $21.3 million. Other investors in the Series A round included Sequoia Capital India, SGInnovate, Pappas Capital and Expeditions Fund.

The money will be used to fund product development and its expansion in Europe, where the company is planning to open an office in Dublin, Ireland. The startup is also scheduled to launch the early access program of its developer tools later this year.

While Singapore is more widely known as a financial hub, it has also been one of the most proactive governments in supporting quantum technologies. The Center for Quantum Technologies, where Horizon Quantum Computings founder and CEO Joe Fitzsimons used to be a professor, was set up under the city-states Research Centres of Excellence program to advance research in the cutting-edge field.

When I made the jump from academia, Singapore already had the right talent [for quantum computing] and there was access to capital, said Fitzsimons, who earned a PhD from University of Oxford.

Singapore is also less likely to impose export restrictions on technologies, reckoned the founder, who said he doesnt want his company to be barred from selling in other markets like the European Union.

Being in a politically neutral country like Singapore is increasingly important in a world where businesses become caught in the tech war between the U.S. and China and lose access to supply chains. Launching from a neutral home base is now seen as a prerequisite for many tech firms, including quantum computer builders, who rely on components sourced from around the world.

Tencents investment in Horizon Quantum Computing is purely financial, so it wont entail any transfer of sensitive data, the founder noted. The startup took Tencents investment because the giant is an expert in the area, he said.

Indeed, the social networking and gaming giant showed a keen interest in the field when it opened its quantum research lab in 2018. Ling Ge, Tencents chief representative in Europe and the person who oversaw the deal with Horizon Quantum Computing, has known Fitzsimons since her years in Oxford, where she studied quantum computing.

At Tencent, we take a long-term perspective on quantum. In our own quantum lab, we are focused on fundamental research, first-principles simulations and quantum algorithms, and how these might serve enterprise customers, said Ge at an industry event last year.

In terms of investments, we take a science-driven approach. One of the challenges in investing in quantum is what we call the black box paradox. The challenge of evaluating early-stage deep tech companies in areas like quantum, nuclear fusion or biotech is difficult because the core technology is in its early proof-of-concept phase. It is hard to evaluate and understand at what stage of maturity it really is.

Therefore, we take appropriate steps to mitigate the risks of this black box paradox depending on the investment stage. This is primarily achieved through our deep technical expertise, which allows us to really understand what is being developed and its maturity, she said.

The story was updated on April 3, 2023 to clarify the founders view on export controls.

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Tencent backs Singapores Horizon Quantum Computing in $18M round - TechCrunch

Multinational consumer goods company Unilever, which owns brands ranging from Dove to premium Tatcha and Hourglass Cosmetics, has used machine learning since the 1950s. Now, its developing robotics and AI for use in product testing and development.

Unilevers beauty and wellbeing arm represents 20% of the companys annual revenue in 2022, that equated to $13.3 billion, and sales have been on the rise. The companys 120,000-square-foot Materials Innovation Factory (MIF), opened in 2017 in partnership with the University of Liverpool in Liverpool, U.K.. is run by over 250 researchers.

The MIF has been using robots and AI to test and develop its products for the last five years. In 2022, products that were developed using MIF technologies drove one-third of its tech-derived product sales. They included the Dove Intensive Repair Shampoo and Conditioner, the Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Dry Shampoo and the Hourglass Cosmetics Red 0 Lipstick, which were all made with AI and robotics.

MIFs robots feature celebrity-inspired names, including Ariana, Shirley and Gwen. The Force Brush is a hair brush equipped with sensors for force, temperature and sound. Unilever used it in the development of the Dove Intensive Repair Conditioner to test its ability to detangle hair. The hair brush collects hundreds of data points during the hair brushing process, which translate to insights on potential improvements to be made to product formulas. The Ariana robot, on the other hand, prepares hair samples for widespread lab testing.

The robots we use in the lab probably exceed the output of three or four people doing the same task, said Dr. Paul Jenkins, global research director of beauty, personal care science and Technology at MIF. If a person was doing the same task, it would take them much longer. There are also other complications, like the boredom it would entail after a continuous period, and also the great potential for injury due to the involved repetition.

The robot Shirley, meanwhile, is stationary and washes hair. Its function is to gauge the user experience and performance of shampoo and conditioner products by Tresemm, another Unilever brand. It is able to do 120 hair swatch washes in 24 hours. Finally, Gwen, another stationary machine robot, can test up to 96 tubes of Unilever products in 24 hours. It tests and perfects products foam volume and density through a process that incorporates water. All the robots exceed human outputin these tasks at least fourfold.

Other uses of innovative machines are abundant in the Unilever lab. A rheometer is used to measure the viscosity and acidity of Dove, Sunsilk and Alberto Balsam formulas. It collects 400-500 data points per month. To make the perfect, cruelty-free red pigment for the Hourglass Cosmetics red lipstick, a spectrophotometer was incorporated to measure the pigments reflective quality. It took two years to achieve the color without resorting to use of carmine beetles.

The benefits of using robots in a lab setting are obvious. For one, robots can run through the night without experiencing injury due to repetitive tasks. Whats more, they allow for the manipulation of humidity and agitation, as well as speed and force, allowing for thorough trials and experimentation. Whats more, using AI, the data points they provide can be cross-referenced between experiments, increasing the potential for new discoveries and insights.

We now use AI everywhere, said Dr. Sam Samaras, global vp of science and technology in Unilevers beauty and wellness division. We use AI in our manufacturing plants to make the processes we run more efficient. We also use it to understand the input we get through consumer groups, through active listening and social media. We use it in research whether or not were using robotics.

Unilever is investing in robotics, AI and quantum computing, seeing them as key to the next stage of beauty innovation. It is currently testing three collaborative robots, or cobots, in its Liverpool lab. The same way that we took the repetitive work of hair washing down to a robot, the cobots will be a more flexible robotic solution versus a fixed robotic solution, said Dr. Samaras.

The company is also bringing in more stationary robots and plans to incorporate quantum computing when the technology is available for businesses. Quantum computing is an area of computer science that allows for quicker, more complex machine problem-solving, compared to classic computers. Its based on the physics concept of quantum theory.

Its definitely not a replacement for human jobs, she said. We hire the best and the brightest scientists from around the Northwest of England, but also all around the world. What AI and robotics allow us to do is have these people do more creative problem-solving and less of the repetitive stuff.

Working with robots and AI for data also allows the companys worldwide labs as far out as Bangalore, India to monitor each others progress using Microsoft lenses or digital camera feeds. Theyre great for efficiencies and cutting out menial tasks, said Dr. Samaras. But what really gets me excited is that I get to learn stuff that, 10 years ago, we couldnt have learned.

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How Unilever is using robots, AI and testing quantum computing to innovate in beauty - Glossy

KPMG's Global Quantum Hub announced on Tuesday a collaboration with Classiq, the Israeli quantum software company, to bring innovative quantum solutions to clients.

Classiq and KPMG have extensive experience of supporting and enabling quantum newcomers and quantum experts. The collaboration will target a range of industry verticals including financial services, automotive, pharma, energy, telco and logistics. The companies efforts will focus on quantum use-case exploration and quantum capability development.

"By bringing together our expertise in quantum strategy, technology and client processes with Classiq's cutting-edge quantum software platform, we will provide clients with innovative solutions that will help them drive business value through quantum computing," said Troels Steenstrup, Head of KPMG's Global Quantum Hub.

"Classiq is committed to making quantum computing a scalable, accessible and powerful technology for enterprises," said Nir Minerbi, CEO of Classiq. "We are excited to work with KPMG to help organizations adopt quantum technologies and drive real-world impact through the use of quantum computing."

Classiq, which raised $63 million since its 2020 inception, provides an end-to-end platform for designing, executing, and analyzing quantum software. Built for organizations that want to accelerate their quantum computing programs, Classiqs patented software automatically converts high-level functional models into optimized quantum circuits for most quantum computers and cloud providers.

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KPMG and Classiq join forces to offer quantum computing capabilities to enterprise customers - CTech

In 1994, mathematician Peter Shor developed an algorithm showing how then-hypothetical quantum computers could factor numbers exponentially faster than standard machines. This promise of exotic computational power launched the age of quantum computing. It also set the clock ticking on existing public-key cryptography that provides safeguards for online banking, medical records, national secrets and more based on the infeasibility of factoring massive numbers.

Today, with Google, IBM and College Park-based startup IonQ racing to introduce the worlds first general-purpose quantum computer, University of Maryland researchersbacked by $1 million in funding from the National Science Foundationare developing a framework for cryptographic systems that can weather increasingly powerful quantum computers. They are also focused on fundamentally changing the way that cryptography is taught, developed and practiced.

The aim of our work is to help build the foundational theory of cryptography in a post-quantum future, said Jonathan Katz, a professor of computer science and principal investigator of the award. We know that many aspects of classical cryptography will look very different in a world where everyone, both honest parties and attackers, have access to quantum computers.

Assisting Katz on the NSF award are Dana Dachman-Soled, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Gorjan Alagic, an associate research scientist in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), where Dachman-Soled also holds an appointment.

The researchers will explore constructions of cryptosystems that can be proven secure against quantum computers. Initially they will focus on the private-key setting. Two kinds of cryptography are currently in use: public-key and private-key. The former is ideal for negotiating a connection over the internet but slow for sending data. The latter is very fast but needs a preexisting, already-negotiated connection. In practice, both types get used often.

It is known that quantum computers would pose a dangerous threat to current public-key cryptosystems, Alagic said, but security of private-key systems against quantum computers is less well understood. One strategy is to establish mathematical theorems that say things like, breaking this private-key cryptosystem would take a quantum computer that's thispowerful.

Alagic and the other researchers are working closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in this area, as the federal agency is ultimately tasked with establishing the benchmarks for any post-quantum security regulations or protocols.

A key element of the NSF grant is to explore new options in education, Katz said. While cryptography in a post-quantum future will require people to think differently about the challenge of securing critical information, it will also require new knowledge on quantum-based security features that are not currently possible.

Educational initiatives are already underway, with the UMD faculty helping organize a summer school on quantum and post-quantum cryptography at the University of California, Los Angeles last year. The weeklong event brought together physicists and computer scientists and included introductory talks on cryptography and quantum computing, invited talks on post-quantum assumptions and proof techniques, and poster and mentoring sessions.

Dachman-Soled said that although she believes existing public-key cryptosystems will remain in use for the near future, she is incorporating a module on post-quantum cryptography in the undergraduate course she teaches at UMD.

She is also working with a team of Gemstone Honors Program students to extend the functionality of a toolkit she developed to analyze the security of post-quantum cryptosystems when side-information is available. Examples include a systems timing, power consumption and electromagnetic leaks, which can be used as a sort of hint in attacks to break the cryptosystem, Dachman-Soled explained.

To get younger students interested in quantum cryptography, Alagic recently visited an elementary school and a middle school in Montgomery County, Md., as part of each schools career-day programming.

The kids were great, he said. The elementary school students enjoyed it so much they actually sent me thank-you notes encrypted with the Caesar cipher I taught them.

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$1M NSF Award Supports Reimagining Cryptography in a Post-Quantum - Maryland Today

This is an audio transcript of the Tech Tonic podcast: The quantum revolution brain waves

Madhumita MurgiaHi, my name is Madhumita Murgia, and Im one of the presenters of Tech Tonic. Were looking for some feedback from our listeners about the show, so if you have a second, please fill out our brief listener survey, which you can find at FT.com/techtonicsurvey.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So far in this season of Tech Tonic, weve been talking about quantum computers and how they could bring about a quantum revolution. But computers arent the only forms of technology being built today that use quantum physics.

Margot TaylorOK. So all right. Do you want to come in? This is our little participant today. Shes a little shy.

Madhumita MurgiaIn a hospital in Toronto in Canada, researcher Margot Taylor is using quantum technology to see in to the brains of young children. Today, Margot is scanning the brain of a four-year-old girl. Shes quiet and shy, and shes holding tight to her dads hand as Margot gets her set up in her lab.

Margot TaylorShes going into the magnetically shielded room, which is a big room. And then she sits in this rocking chair, and here is the helmet, and it goes on. Its got all these sensors in the helmet, and it goes on her hand just like that, like a bicycle helmet.

Madhumita Murgia The little girl climbs into a big padded chair and sits quietly as a brightly coloured plastic helmet is fitted on to her head. But this is no ordinary helmet. Its a quantum brain scanner fitted with a raft of sensors that use quantum physics to detect brain activity.

Margot TaylorOK. Are you ready? Are you ready to go? All right (door shutting sound). So the doors now shut. And so now the sensors are calibrated, and so we can record all the different frequencies and get measures of ongoing brain activity.

Madhumita Murgia Margot shows the little girl different images and videos to elicit different responses in her brain pictures of different faces with different expressions mixed with abstract shapes.

Margot TaylorAnd so she is now watching these stimuli. And then in between you can see also there are occasional cartoon characters. And that is just so the children are watching for the cartoon characters that keeps them engaged.

Madhumita Murgia All the while, the quantum sensors in the helmet pick up the electromagnetic fields generated by the brains billions of firing neurons.

Margot TaylorSo this is our stimulus computer, and its just the operating panel on the, on the right, and on the left, we have the ongoing activity coming from these sensors.

Madhumita MurgiaIt means Margot can watch the little girls brain working in real time right there on her computer screen. Margot has spent her career trying to understand childrens brains, but until now, its been virtually impossible to get an accurate picture of whats going on inside them because the brain scanners in general use today dont work on small children. They need subjects to stay really still, and small children tend to move and wriggle about. But now, a new generation of quantum-powered brain scanners has changed all that. And theyre giving researchers like Margot a window into the workings of young brains that theyve never had before. Margot says this new quantum technology feels like a miracle.

Margot Taylor This is the first time weve been able to see brain function in young children. Absolutely astoundingly good recordings of brain function. We can study infants and look at their real-time ongoing brain activity. I think this is revolutionary. I am very grateful to be able to work with these quantum sensors.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Madhumita MurgiaThis is Tech Tonic from the Financial Times. I am Madhumita Murgia.

John Thornhill And Im John Thornhill. In this season, weve been asking if were on the brink of a quantum revolution. Most of that conversation has been about quantum computers. The idea that new, powerful computers based on quantum physics will transform computing, solve all kinds of problems and upend whole industries in the process. But quantum computers are just one part of the quantum technology being developed today. Other technologies that use quantum physics, things like quantum sensors and quantum communication networks, are also being touted as game changing innovations. So in this episode, were looking beyond the computers and asking if the wider world of quantum technology is where the quantum revolution is really taking place.

Madhumita MurgiaMargot Taylors research in Toronto is a great example of where quantum technology is already having a real-world impact. She works at the Hospital for Sick Children, and the research shes doing right now focuses on autism, a condition that emerges in childhood. So in her lab, shes scanning childrens brains to look for brain activity associated with autism.

Margot Taylor So this is one of our tasks that we present to them. Now, you can see that there are emotional faces being presented, happy and angry faces. And we present them particularly because people with autism, one of their main difficulties is in the perception and understanding emotional faces.

Madhumita MurgiaDespite decades of research, theres still a lot we dont know about autism and what causes it. We know it develops in childhood and that theres probably a genetic component to it because it tends to run in families. Researchers have known for years that there are certain patterns of brain activity associated with autism. And using brain scans, these patterns have been found in adults and older children with autism. Margot thinks that these same patterns of brain activity could be present in younger children even before they develop symptoms of the condition.

Margot TaylorSo were looking for a brain signature that could predict the likelihood of developing autism.

Madhumita Murgia If shes right, it might help to explain how autism emerges in young brains, and it could help identify at a young age the children who might develop the condition.

Margot TaylorAnd if thats the case, then as soon as that an atypical signature is seen, then interventions could be started right away. Behavioural interventions work. They help them improve the quality of life of the child and family. And the earlier they start, the better it is. The other aspect is that if we find a reliable brain signature, then that could help guide future research because there are pharmaceutical interventions that can be developed.

Madhumita Murgia Margots research could be groundbreaking. Thats because until now, researchers havent been able to look for the brain signature for autism in young children. In fact, they havent been able to observe the brain functioning of young children much at all. Thats because existing brain scanners dont really work on kids. Theyre too big, and crucially to work, they need the person being scanned to do something that children find really hard to do.

Margot TaylorThe participant has to stay perfectly still and little children dont stay perfectly still.

Madhumita Murgia Margot likens the older brain scanners to massive old fashioned hair dryers you might find in a 1950s hair salon.

Margot Taylor But its quite a ways away from the persons head because the sensors are cooled with liquid helium, and so they have to be kept a long ways away from the head. And then if you put a small head into that, so like one size fits all, you can imagine putting a little child in an adult hairdryer in a salon, thered be so much room around that the signal is very impoverished at that point.

Madhumita Murgia So for years, getting good data on what was actually going on in childrens brains was basically impossible. And for people like Margot, whos particularly interested in childrens brains, that was hugely frustrating. But in recent years, developments in quantum technology have changed all that. New brain scanning technology using quantum physics has been developed by people like this man, Matt Brookes.

Matthew Brookes Im a professor of physics at the University of Nottingham, and Ive been working for nearly 20 years on various different types of human brain imaging.

Madhumita Murgia Matt is part of the team that developed the quantum brain scanner Margot is now using in her lab.

Matthew BrookesIn recent years, theres been a new generation of quantum devices, and in our case quantum sensors, that have come along that have really fundamentally changed what we can do. These new sensors are very small. Theyre about the size of a Lego brick. The device looks like a bike helmet. Its about the same weight as a bike helmet, but a bike helmet with lots of these little Lego bricks. And so you just put it on your head that gets the sensors close to your head. And then you measure magnetic fields have been generated by the brain as we carry out tasks.

Madhumita Murgia Because the sensors are closer to the head, they pick up clearer signals from the brain, and the person being scanned can move around.

Matthew Brookes So with this, because its just a helmet, the sensors move with the head. So you can stand up and you can go for a walk. You can behave normally. You can move your arms around. You can maybe head around. You can do different tasks.

Madhumita Murgia This means the technology can be used to scan brains, where the subjects have difficulty staying still. And thats not just children. Measuring brain function in patients with Parkinsons, for example, or studying the brain when seizures happen in epilepsy. But for researchers like Margot, it means theyre getting their first real insight into something theyve spent their whole career studying from a distance, the brains of young children.

Margot TaylorIt is very, very exciting. Oh, we thought it was a miracle (laughs). We hadnt seen really good recordings of ongoing brain function in little children before. So for me, this is just a tremendous breakthrough.

Madhumita MurgiaLike quantum computers, quantum sensors are an example of how our understanding of quantum physics is being used to develop a new and exciting technology. The quantum sensors arent just used for scanning brains. Theyre being developed for all kinds of uses to measure changes deep on the ground, making better navigation systems, driverless cars, in building the worlds most accurate clocks. And Matt Brookes says that unlike quantum computing, you dont have to look years or decades into the future to see the applications for quantum sensors. They are being used today.

Matthew BrookesA lot of people, when they think about quantum technology, they immediately think of quantum computing, which is interesting, is exciting, but its not the only game in town. Actually, quantum sensors are far more advanced that are already being used in applications like this and other applications, and they really do work. And so I think theres certainly a hype around quantum computing, and its sometimes frustrating that because of that hype, actually a lot of the other work thats being done in the quantum technology sector is being overlooked.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Madhumita Murgia So, John, in this season of the podcast, weve been looking at quantum computers and the impact they might have. But quantum sensors, theres another type of quantum technology thats being developed, and it seems to be revolutionary in its own right, at least in the world of brain scans and neurological research like weve just heard. So we should probably take a step back here and talk about what quantum sensors are, how they work and why they might be so useful.

John Thornhill I mean, I think Matt has a very good point that quantum sensors tend to be the overlooked sibling of quantum computing, which gets all the headlines. But quantum sensors clearly have a lot of potential, and they might become more practically useful before quantum computers themselves. And quantum sensors work in different ways. But essentially what theyre doing is taking advantage of the fact that quantum particles are really sensitive to their environment. And youll remember when we were talking about building quantum computers, that was one of the real big problems for quantum computers, that they are sensitive to all kinds of environmental noise.

Madhumita MurgiaThats right. And this is a problem because an even a little bit of heat or electromagnetic waves or photons of light, really anything in the environment is enough to disturb the delicate state of the qubits and to stop the computer working at all.

John Thornhill Id say quantum sensors are really trying to turn that weakness into a strength. Theyre using the fact that quantum particles are super sensitive to changes in the environment around them, but that allows you to measure the environment with an incredible level of sensitivity and accuracy. So in the case of quantum brain scanners, theyre measuring the tiny changes in the brains electromagnetic fields to tell you about whats going on in the brain. But quantum particles can be sensitive to all kinds of other small environmental changes, too. So they have lots of other potential uses.

Madhumita MurgiaSo what kind of applications are we talking about here?

John ThornhillWell, you can build better guidance systems with quantum particles, for example, that are sensitive to the Earths magnetic field. Another really interesting use is for quantum sensors that detect tiny changes in gravity, because this can tell you a lot about movements in the Earth deep underground. And we spoke to one big fan of quantum sensors and in particular, these gravity detecting sensors. His name is Stuart Woods.

Stuart WoodsBeing able to use these atoms to look at the rest of the world and to see how the world is changing is really the next generation of sensors. And thats what were talking about with quantum sensors.

John Thornhill Stuart has a long career in different types of deep tech, including quantum computing, but he now works for a quantum technology investment company called Quantum Exponential. He says the really exciting thing about quantum sensors is they could give us unprecedented amounts of information about the world we live in. And this could help us tackle the major challenges we face today.

Stuart WoodsAs were facing climate change, it is all about understanding the rate of change that, that is happening so that we can a, on one hand, look at what we can do to fix it. But I think as we all know, were constantly at a point with climate change to understand and express the urgency of the situation that were in. And I think quantum sensors will help us do that.

John Thornhill Quantum sensors could help us better measure how and how fast our planet is changing. And this is where, Stuart says, detecting movements in the Earth is really important because shifting weather patterns are causing big changes in the ground as well as in the atmosphere. And those changes in the ground are producing tiny alterations in gravity that only quantum sensors can pick up.

Stuart WoodsYou can imagine now where we can actually look underground and see changes in the Earth, eg, you know, subsidence. When you look at climate change, we obviously have floods, right? But the other side that we have with climate change is subsidence, right? Exactly the kind of applications you can see with quantum sensors. You know, in those situations you can imagine a large amount of mass physically changing and therefore slight changes in the gravitational field in those areas where you suspect that they might happen. And you can imagine over time, if were starting to monitor different areas, we should be able to start to get a very accurate understanding of subsidence and changes in the world.

John Thornhill You can imagine other uses for gravity detecting quantum sensors, such as helping seismologists understand and predict earthquakes, and helping archaeologists investigate buried ruins without excavating them. But Stewart says they also have potential commercial uses with things like big infrastructure projects.

Stuart WoodsTo me, I find railroads incredibly fascinating, right? A railroad is a living thing, right? In the winter, you might have a wet track, you might have the wet soil. Things sink. Things move. In the summer, everything dries out. The, the metal tracks themselves expand, and that infrastructure is now moving and contracting according to the environment that it sits in. And if we had the ability to understand how that track, you know, moved and changed, that would then allow us to build much larger infrastructures, but allow us to have a lot more intelligent infrastructures and therefore lead to mega smart infrastructures.

John Thornhill So the picture that the champions of quantum sensor technology paint of the future is a world where we have access to much more information about all kinds of things around us, all kinds of information, and in much more detail than weve ever had before. And its the access to all that information from quantum sensors that could be really game changing for industries and society as a whole.

Madhumita MurgiaSo this season weve been asking if a quantum revolution is coming. And with quantum computers, I suppose its easy to see how a computer suddenly showing up that can break the internet or solve these seemingly impossible problems could be seen as revolutionary. But maybe we should be thinking about the impact of quantum technologies more broadly.

John Thornhill Yes, I think when it comes to quantum computers, even their strongest advocates admit there are a lot of technological challenges to building them. And maybe, other technologies using quantum physics should be getting a bit more attention. And earlier in the season, if you remember, we spoke to Jack Hidary, and he used to work for Google, and now hes in charge of a quantum company called SandboxAQ.

Jack HidaryMost of the attention is focused on computing, whereas quantum sensors will have impacts far sooner than quantum computers. In fact, we today have quantum sensors right now being tested in a variety of life sciences applications, medical applications, navigation applications. So these are the kinds of quantum sensing applications that are much more near-term. We dont need error correction. We dont need to build millions of qubits inside these things. Were already fabricating these today and deploying them. So, so quantum sensing, I think, is an example where were going to see quantum technology in peoples hands in the next few years, far sooner than well see a quantum computer.

John Thornhill But we dont have to choose which type of quantum technology to back. When we spoke, Jack painted a vision of a quantum future that is quite striking. You have quantum computers doing all these calculations. You have quantum sensors bringing in all this new data. And then you have a third component, a quantum communication network, a new kind of internet that could connect all of this together.

Jack Hidary Its really about ultimately having a parallel internet for the purpose of connecting two quantum computers, for the purpose of sharing a computation, for the purpose of taking a quantum sensor. You can directly connect it with a quantum computer for processing that data coming from the quantum sensor. So the future, now this is now 10 to 20 years from now, but just to paint a picture for your listeners, this is something that will occur over the next 10-20 years. Its exciting for discovery. Its exciting for collaboration. Well see that built out. And hopefully you and I will come back 10 years from now in another podcast, and well see how were doing there.

John Thornhill Thats the vision of the quantum future that people working in quantum technology today are talking about. So its not just about quantum computers. Its about a whole ecosystem of quantum technologies all working together.

Madhumita MurgiaIn the next and final episode of this Season of Tech Tonic, we go back into the weird world of quantum mechanics.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Carlo RovelliEverything is quantum. So thiscup Ihave in my hands, which looks so solid and well-defined, is actually a wavy thing that is constantly disappearing, reappearing and in principle could be in twoplaces at thesame time. And all these things in principle could happen.

Madhumita MurgiaWe speak to some of the big names in the world of quantum mechanics about what quantum technology could tell us about the nature of the universe and reality.

David DeutschSupposing that you build a quantum computer - that means that theres more to reality, exponentially more to reality, than just the states of the world that we see around us.

John Thornhill This has been Tech Tonic from the Financial Times. Im John Thornhill.

Madhumita MurgiaAnd Im Madhumita Murgia. Tech Tonic senior producer is Edwin Lane, and our producer is Josh Gabert-Doyon. Manuela Saragosa is our executive producer. Sound Design byBreen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Cheryl Brumley is our global head of audio.

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The quantum revolution: brain waves - Financial Times

Qantinuum

Quantinuum

Quantinuum recently announced that its first-generation System Model H1 trapped ion quantum computer has once again set a new quantum volume (QV) record of 32,768. This achievement is on track with Quantinuums initial 2020 roadmap that projected it would increase quantum volume by 10x annually for five years.

Early experimental versions of the Quantinuum H1-1 quantum computer demonstrated relatively small values of quantum volume. When the machine made its public debut in 2020, Quantinuum (Honeywell Quantum Solutions at that time) had a documented QV of 64. Since then, Quantinuum has steadily doubled the H1 quantum volume eight consecutive times to reach its current value of 32,768.

What is quantum volume?

There are many tests available for determining the performance of individual quantum components and systems. However, only a few tests can measure a quantum computer's overall performance. IBM filled this void for gate-based quantum computers in 2019 with the development of quantum volume (QV). QV has the added benefit of producing an easy-to-interpret, single-number measurement; the higher the QV number, the more powerful the quantum computer.

Quantum volume is holistic, which means it cant be gamed by inflating one or two of the factors, such as adding many qubits without making any other adjustments. To raise QV, all parts of the system must be improved in an integrated fashion.

Quantum computers and speedometers

Simplistically, quantum volume can be compared to a speedometer in a high-performance race car. Both measurements reflect the total performance of a complex system. A speedometer measures speed created by powerful motors and an assortment of precision components and finely tuned systems. Racing scientists optimize the cars aerodynamics, its fuel mixture, tires and the gearing of complex transmissions to obtain the highest speed.

However, there is another factorfrictionthat works against speed. Most friction comes from air resistance, the road surface and mechanical parts within the car.

Similarly, quantum volume measures a quantum computers overall performance. QV is influenced directly and indirectly by the number of qubits, qubit connectivity, speed and fidelity of quantum gates, cross talk, circuit compiler efficiency and measurement errors. Just as friction negatively affects the performance of cars, errors reduce the performance of quantum computers. Quantum errors are also commonly enumerated as a fidelity percentage.

High-fidelity qubits translate into high quantum volume

Qubits are the basic units of information in quantum computers. Quantum computings awesome potential to exponentially out-compute classical supercomputers comes from the quantum properties of superposition and entanglement that allow qubits to interact simultaneously.

Qubit quality compared to qubit quantity is often misunderstood by people unfamiliar with quantum computing. Once, while participating in a quantum forum, I was asked if a large number of low-fidelity qubits could outperform a handful of high-quality qubits. For many reasons, the answer was no. Errors generated by qubits of poor quality will likely degrade the computers performance rather than improve it. By the same standard, low-fidelity qubits would also degrade quantum volume.

QCCD: The Secret Behind Quantinuum's High Performance

Quantinuum's ability to continually improve its quantum volume can be attributed to its trapped ion architecture, which is called a quantum charge coupled device (QCCD).

Quantinuum was the first company to implement and improve QCCD after it was proposed twenty years ago in a research paper by Dr. David Wineland (recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics) and his NIST group. Dr. Chris Monroe, co-founder and chief scientist for IonQ and professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, was one of the authors of that paper.

Quantinuums QCCD architecture consists of multiple dedicated zones, into which small numbers of ytterbium and barium ions can be transported to perform quantum computations. QCCD also supports an important feature called mid-circuit measurement and reset (MCMR). It allows an algorithm to be paused during its execution to measure qubits without affecting the outcome. MCMR is expected to play an important future role in quantum error correction. Because of its capability to reuse qubits, in some instances it can reduce the total number of qubits needed for an operation.

Quantinuums H1 generation H-Series quantum computer currently has 20 fully connected qubits spread across its five QCCD zones where qubit operations are performed. In the future, when Quantinuum chooses to scale up the number of qubits, it can add additional zones.

Increasing quantum volume

Quantinums QCCD architecture has helped its researchers increase quantum volume and system fidelity for the System Model H1 . Here are two examples of this:

QCCD creates two-qubit gates by moving both qubits into an isolation zone to reduce potential errors and crosstalk that could occur if the zone contained many qubits. With greater precision and control over a few qubits in a small zone, QCCD is not limited to creating only normal two-qubit full entangling gates; the architecture also allows creation of arbitrary angle partially entangling gates. These gates have the advantage of being able to run on many circuit types with fewer errors. For example, the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is used in many quantum algorithms, the most famous being Shors algorithm. When arbitrary angle partially entangling gates are substituted for normal two-qubit entangling gates in the QFT, half as many gates are required, and errors are reduced by 2x.

It should be no surprise that Quantinuum used arbitrary angle partially entangling gates in the QV circuits that produced its latest quantum volume record of 32,768.

Performance insights

Quantum volume is not just a performance indicator. It can also be used to assist development efforts. Along with its quantum volume announcement, Quantinuum provided a few interesting insights into how its researchers solved several technical issues involving quantum volume, as well as a way to greatly improve circuit runtime:

By benchmarking the Quantinuum H1s performance on relevant circuits, the researchers found that a very slight change in gate fidelity reduced the algorithms runtime by 3x.

Wrapping up

Quantinuum has had many research achievements over the past 12 months that are important to its long-term success. One example is implementing fault-tolerant entangling gates on the five-qubit code and the color code, which are important to the future development of quantum error correction.

In another breakthrough, Quantinuum researchers eliminated a potential obstacle in its long-term roadmap by developing a method to simultaneously move two types of ions through junctions and make right turns in ion traps. Prior to this development it was believed each type of ion would have to be moved separately through the junctions and then recombinedat a high cost of time.

Everything considered, Quantinuum has made great progress over the past two years. Looking ahead, I expect Quantinuum will continue to focus on higher fidelities and expand on its real-time quantum error mitigation and quantum error correction research. It is also possible we could see a flip in its use of ytterbium ions as qubits and barium ions for cooling, which offers several advantages including increased gate fidelity.

Quantinuum has solid management, an excellent quantum technology platform and an aggressive roadmap. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, its new CEO, Dr. Raj Hazra will make.

Analyst notes

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Unlocking Quantum Potential With High-Quality Qubits: How Quantinuum Achieved A Three-Year String Of Record-Breaking Quantum Measurements - Forbes

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Quantum computing could reshape how we solve complex problems and process sums of data previously thought impossible to handle.

What could take today's computers thousands of years to solve, quantum computers could potentially calculate in seconds.

This is possible through exploiting the unique capabilities of quantum particles (or qubits) to be able to be in two places at once, and communicate mysteriously with each other even if they are millions of miles apart.

Everything from producing more efficient engines to simulating chemical reactions for developing new medicine, more powerful computing could lead to a plethora of innovation breakthroughs across the scientific disciplines and technology.

As promising as this sounds, building practical quantum computers has been tricky for engineers. Getting qubits to move between quantum chips fast and accurately has always been a major obstacle.

In February, researchers from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom announced a breakthrough, after managing to solve this problem by cleverly using electrical fields. Quantum information was transferred between chips at record speed with an accuracy of over 99 percent.

By demonstrating that two quantum computing chips can be connected opens the way to scalability, as it means chips can be linked together, like a jigsaw, to create powerful processors.

Proving that this is possible is a major step forward in building machines that can perform functional computations using the technology.

Companies such as Google and IBM have been attempting to engineer simple quantum computers for decades now, at a slow pace. Transferring information between chips has proven difficult, especially when trying to transfer data from one point to another fast and reliably without inducing errors.

Simple quantum computations can be performed in laboratory settings, but in the real world such technology will need to operate in imperfect and unpredictable environments.

Anything from fluctuations in voltage to stray electromagnetic fields from other surrounding devices could all throw the delicate balance of quantum particles out of balance.

When dealing in the realm of the subatomic, delicacy is key, and so breakthroughs such as these could soon lead to further understandings in tapping into quantum processing technology.

Many challenges remain before quantum computing promises to unlock more secrets of reality for scientists.

Quantum computers need to be kept at an extremely cold temperature of absolute zero to minimize interference, which can cause issues when they enter mainstream research facilities. Keeping conditions stable enough for subatomic particles to work their magic is extremely challenging, and the technology is still very much in its early stages.

Slow progress is being made, and however primitive their current state is, their future potential is a worthy incentive.

When the first transistor for traditional modern computing was made in 1947, nobody could predict the impact it would have in the decades to come, with the use of smartphones and laptops just over half a century later.

The belief that quantum computing will also lead to disruptive technologies in the near future still motivates scientists to keep pushing forward. How long it may take to reach this stage, however, is something nobody is certain about.

Predicting future technologies is always difficult, and many technologies go through bursts of advancement and stagnation.

Progress in battery energy storage for example, has remained relatively stuck for many years now, which has in turn held back many other areas of innovation.

Our understanding in genetics and gene editing however, has undergone a renaissance in the last ten years, with new stem cell treatments for cancer such as Car-T therapies now available that would have been impossible even 15 years ago.

The hope is that quantum computing will follow the lead of the latter, and offer us new insights into how we can further innovation across scientific disciplines.

Barry He is a London-based columnist for China Daily.

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Researchers achieve key milestone in move toward commercial ... - China Daily

Quantum computing as a service (QCaaS) makes it possible for users to access qubit-enabled information processing architecture over cloud services. Qubits use real-world physics to tackle problems that are hard or even impossible to solve using the classical bits found in conventional computing machines. But when it comes to finding solutions for complex route planning tasks, users may want to consider an alternative to quantum computing. And that alternative, if you missed the biocomputing boom that occurred a decade or so ago, could come as quite a surprise.

Todays quantum processors are dubbed noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) technology. The endgame is to create fault-tolerant quantum devices featuring a million or more physical qubits, which can be turned into logical qubits using error correction methods. Quantum computing states can be extremely fragile and sensitive to their surroundings. And today, developers have to work hard to support measurements involving just a few hundred qubits, let alone millions.

Early success stories include the use of quantum computers to solve supply chain and logistics problems. But the technology comes at a price and has collectively required billions of dollars to develop. However, it turns out that nature has been busy, too, developing organisms with biocomputing properties. And one of its brightest stars can be found in the forest, which goes by the Latin name Physarum polycephalum, also commonly known as slime mould.

Visible with the naked eye, the bright yellow-coloured, single-celled organism adapts its growth based on surrounding conditions. Slime mould is attracted by nutrients such as oat flakes, deterred by repellents such as salt, and capable of avoiding hazards. Dubbed wetware, Physarum polycephalum combines hardware and software capabilities. And, to the delight of researchers, the biomaterial can be used to solve mazes and determine the shortest path between nodes in a network a notoriously difficult problem for classical computers to answer efficiently.

The ease of culturing and experimenting with Physarum makes this slime mould an ideal substrate for real-world implementations of unconventional sensing and computing devices, writes Andrew Adamatzky, director of the Unconventional Computing Laboratory within the Department of Computer Science at UWE. In the last decade, Physarum has became a Swiss army knife of unconventional computing: give the slime mould a problem and it will solve it.

And if you doubt the ability of slime mould to offer an extremely affordable and resource-efficient biocomputing alternative to quantum computing, its worth checking out some of the organisms achievements in the lab. Adamatzky and his colleagues have found particular success in allowing the mould to explore miniature replica terrains, highlighting regions of interest with nutrients that set growth parameters for the living network.

The 3D landscapes formed in Nylon sit above petri dishes of water, which make low areas more desirable for the mould due to the higher humidity. And the conditions mean that the organism spreads out its protoplasmic tubes in a way that mimics the growth of transport networks for example, by routing around mountainous areas. Researchers have shown how slime mould can reproduce the route of Germanys longest autobahn and giant road networks across the US; motorways in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK; and even the Tokyo railway system.

Slime moulds ability to solve complex route planning, points towards the biocomputing material as being an alternative to quantum computing. The issue with route planning is that problems become exponentially harder for conventional computers to solve with each node added to the network. But both quantum computers and organisms such as Physarum polycephalum are capable of selecting the optimal (or at least close to optimal) path in linear time, although only slime mould is able to achieve the feat at such an incredibly low price point. And its remarkable capabilities dont just stop there.

In an extremely clever experiment, scientists demonstrated the capacity of slime mould to anticipate events. Researchers exposed the organism to regular bursts of cold air blown using a fan, which paused its growth. And the team noticed that over time the mould became used to the timings and paused its growth in anticipation even when the fan wasnt activated. Its often said that quantum computers exhibit spooky behaviour thanks to the physics of entangled qubits, but slime mould appears to have some eerie properties of its own.

Today, analysts are using digital models of slime mould to translate its ability to form efficient networks across a range of applications, including optimizing the parameters of photovoltaics. But the amoebas physical properties turn out to be useful as well. Adamatsky and his team have shown how slime mould can be integrated with electrodes to produce wires that have self-healing properties. There appears to be no end to the appeal of this organism, which is even the subject of a feature-length cinema release named The creeping garden.

If you have a few oat flakes to hand, a petri dish and access to a 3D printer to create a terrain, you could be well on the way to exploring whether biocomputers really are an alternative to quantum computers.

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Biocomputers - an alternative to quantum computing? - TechHQ

Quantum computing uses quantum mechanics to perform operations. Quantum mechanics is a physics theory that describes the physical environment at an atomic and subatomic scale, compared to traditional physics, which looks at the macroscopic scale.

Bits denote data in classical computing. These bits are two-state, the familiar 1 or 0. With quantum computing, quantum bits qubits measure computing power. These exist in multiple states at the same time, which can include combining 0 and 1 simultaneously.

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The benefits of this new computing technology include storing massive amounts of information in fewer computers while using less energy. And, by operating outside the traditional laws of physics, quantum computers can offer processing speeds millions of times faster than traditional computers.

In 2019, for example, Googles latest quantum computer performed a calculation in four minutes. The worlds most powerful supercomputer at the time would have needed 10,000 years to finish that same calculation. With 300 qubits, a quantum computers calculations at a given time are greater than the atoms in the universe.

The speed of quantum computers brings many use cases, including faster and smarter artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, advanced pharmaceutical modeling, more accurate weather predictions and the creation of new materials.

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Research firms like Contrive Datum Insights see massive quantum computing market growth. The company projects a compound annual growth rate of 36.89% from 2023 to 2030, with the market reaching $125 billion annually. Where there is that kind of growth and money involved, startups are sure to follow. With quantum computing still in the early stages, startups are tackling multiple fronts, including different computer production methods, advanced quantum algorithms and other innovations.

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Here are some of the quantum computing startups making noise in the space:

Maryland-based quantum computing hardware and software firm IonQ Inc. (NYSE: IONQ). The company partners with various firms like Hyundai Motor Co. to create better machine learning algorithms to improve safety and bring about self-driving automobiles. Hyundai is also leveraging IonQ to study lithium chemistry and find new reactive solutions for future electric vehicles (EVs).

PSIQuantum is a company developing a method of quantum computing that uses photos that represent qubits. The startup is on the CB Insights list of unicorn companies with a current valuation of $3.15 billion as of March 10. The firm completed a $450 million investment round in the summer of 2021 and continues toward its stated goal of developing a 1 million qubit computer.

French startup PASQAL offers quantum computers built with 2D and 3D arrays of ordered neutral atoms, enabling its clients to solve challenging problems. These include improving weather forecasting, boosting auto aerodynamics for greater efficiency and finding relationships between chemical compounds and biological activity for the healthcare industry.

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Established technology giants are also pushing forward quantum computing. IBM remains at the forefront. In November 2022, the company announced the creation of a 430-qubit machine named Osprey, which has the largest qubit count of any processor. IBMs breakthroughs in quantum computing mirror the trajectory of innovation for traditional computers as processing speed increased year over year.

Amazon Inc. Braket is the companys managed quantum computing service and part of its overall growth strategy with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Bracket offers users a place to build, test and run quantum algorithms. It provides them with access to different types of quantum hardware, encourages software development through the Braket SDK and to create open-source software.

Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.s Google, Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. also offer quantum computing solutions and investment. As the biggest tech firms increase participation in quantum computing, more startups should become acquisition and merger targets as the market moves toward consolidation.

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This article Is 2023 The Year Of Quantum Computing Startups And A 1 Million Qubit Machine? originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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Is 2023 The Year Of Quantum Computing Startups And A 1 Million Qubit Machine? - Yahoo Finance

Quantum computers can solve highly complex problems faster than any of its predecessors. We are currently in a period of a quantum revolution. Many organizations are currently investing in the quantum computer industry, and it is predicted that the quantum computing market may increase by 500% by 2028.

Due to their powerful computing capabilities, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has estimated that by April 2030, RSA, Diffie-Hellman (DH), and Elliptic-Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms will become vulnerable to quantum attacks. This makes many organizations vulnerable to harvest now, decrypt later (HNDL) attacks, where attackers harvest data from organizations to decrypt when quantum computing reaches its maturity and the cryptographic algorithms become obsolete. In a new Deloitte Poll, 50.2% of the respondents believe that their organizations are at risk for HNDL attacks.

In quantum computing, the basic unit is qubits (quantum bits), but, more than the classical computing bits which exist in 0 or 1 states, qubits can exist in 0, 1, or in both combinations. Through manipulation of the information in the qubits, high-quality solutions can be provided for difficult problems. The IBM report on security in the quantum computing era states that all Public Key Cryptography (PKC) standards could become vulnerable in the next few years. The exposure of sensitive data will most likely escalate to other risk scenarios, and this will affect communication networks, electronic transaction verifications, and the security of digital evidence as well.

Quantum-resistant or quantum-safe cryptography standards are currently being implemented and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has already chosen the first group of encryption tools that would withstand quantum attacks. This was the result its six-year-long competition. They have also initiated a Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization project to produce quantum-resistant algorithms.

Quantum Cryptography, more accurately described as Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), is a quantum-safe method introduced to exchange key exchange between two entities. It works by transmitting photons, which are polarized light particles, over a fiber optic cable. QKD protocols are designed according to the principles of quantum physics. Hence, observation or eavesdropping on a quantum state causes perturbation because the unique and fragile properties of photons prevent passive interception. This perturbation will lead to transmission errors. This will be detected by the endpoints, and the key will be discarded. This is used as a verification of the distributed keys. Currently, QKD is just limited to distances of less than 100 kilometers, but satellite proof-of-concept suggests that it can be expanded to more distances over the next few years.

There is an ongoing quantum revolution that will transform entire computer processes, enhancing the security and privacy of communications. However, this may also introduce many new cybersecurity threats. According to the Deloitte poll, organizations are preparing for quantum computing cybersecurity risks. 45% of the respondents are almost complete with their assessments of post-quantum encryption vulnerabilities, and only 11.7% are reported to be taking a wait and see approach for a cyber incident to take place.

There are many Quantum-as-a-Service (QaaS) providers that offer quantum services for researchers, scientists, and developers. Since threat actors might target the QaaS providers and their users, these providers should deploy stringent security protocols in order to access the services. The emerging field of quantum machine-learning could also produce more effective algorithms for identifying and detecting new cyber-attack methods.

The following practices can help your organization prepare for quantum computing cybersecurity:

Many are curious about the revolution of quantum computing and its post-quantum effects. Currently, researchers and scientists are still carefully studying the topic. It is always best to approach the quantum threat as much as any other vulnerability, and prepare for quantum-safe protection.

Dilki Rathnayake is a Cybersecurity student studying for her BSc (Hons) in Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at Kingston University. She is also skilled in Computer Network Security and Linux System Administration. She has conducted awareness programs and volunteered for communities that advocate best practices for online safety. In the meantime, she enjoys writing blog articles for Bora and exploring more about IT Security.

Editors Note:The opinions expressed in this guest author article are solely those of the contributor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire, Inc.

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The impact of Quantum Computing on cybersecurity - tripwire.com