D-wave\u2019s Murray Thom tells SiliconRepublic.com that the tech is not just a thing of the future.<\/p>\n
Quantum computing is often seen as a thing of the future \u2013 or the near future, if we take Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang\u2019s words from earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Quantum will start solving real-world problems in the coming years, the CEO declared at the company\u2019s GTC Paris developer conference this June. \u201cQuantum computing is reaching an inflection point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In an interview with SiliconRepublic.com, Murray Thom, D-wave\u2019s vice-president of quantum technology evangelism takes a more nuanced approach. Quantum computing has various applications, some of which are \u201cmany years away, and some of the applications are [possible] today\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n
Thom has spent 23 years at D-wave, during which time he has worked on designing different subcomponents on quantum computers, and even hand built a few quantum computers.<\/p>\n
Grocery stores and telecoms networks<\/p>\n
The consulting firm McKinsey finds that the whole of the quantum industry, which includes three major pillars \u2013 quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing, could together generate up to $97bn in revenue by 2035.<\/p>\n
Simply put, quantum computing utilises the unique behaviours of quantum physics to its advantage, giving it exponential power to compute at a scale much faster than traditional computing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn practical terms, quantum computers are just energy-efficient computers for hard problems,\u201d Thom says. He explains that particular quantum capabilities that are years away have been tied in with the whole industry, adding to the confusion around what the tech can actually achieve, and when.<\/p>\n
For example, D-wave\u2019s quantum computers are already being used in various industries.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The] annealing model uses quantum effects to help it move between clean solutions more quickly, which is really useful for optimisation applications like workforce scheduling,\u201d says Thom.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell, quantum annealing is a way of using the intrinsic abilities of quantum physics to solve specific types of optimisation and sampling-related problems.<\/p>\n
D-wave\u2019s annealing model is used by Pattison Food Group, which owns several grocery brands in Canada, including Save On Foods, Nesters Market and PriceSmart Foods. The company has rolled out two applications, an at-home grocery delivery driver scheduling system, which, Thom says has increased time efficiency for Pattison by 80pc.<\/p>\n
While a new workforce scheduling model for the company has already made it through its first phase of action. Thom says that their client is \u201cexpecting their workforce to save 50,000 hours with that application\u201d.<\/p>\n
While in Japan, NTT Docomo, a mobile phone operator owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, is using quantum tech to optimise the paging signals which pass from cellphone towers to users.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been able to reduce the number of those paging signals by 15pc during peak lows,\u201d says Thom, \u201cwhich effectively increases the capacity of their entire network. They\u2019re deploying that across 250,000 base stations in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n
D-wave tech is also used by Turkey\u2019s Ford Otosan in production and streamlining the manufacturing processes for a line of its vehicles. The company says that the application, which uses annealing quantum computing, has improved vehicle production sequencing at the vehicle manufacturer.<\/p>\n
Finance<\/p>\n
Quantum capabilities have a \u201cvery close connection\u201d with applications in the \u201cfinance space, the commercial banking space, in the fintech sector, maybe even in the financial services sector\u201d, explains Thom.<\/p>\n
A survey by the Bank of Finland earlier this year found that quantum technology has the potential to reshape financial business activities \u201csignificantly\u201d in the long term. Risk management, stress tests and scenario analyses were seen as some of its key benefits to the sector.<\/p>\n
Elaborating on its capabilities, Thom tells me about a published<\/a> case study, where Caixa Bank used D-wave\u2019s system to save 90pc of the time it generally takes to perform bond portfolio optimisation and portfolio optimisation hedging.<\/p>\n While in another case, D-wave is working with MasterCard to explore quantum optimisation applications around allocating rewards programs to customers. This application is currently in an active market test. The company is also exploring using quantum to identify hidden flows of funds in cases such as money laundering.<\/p>\n However, given the sensitivity of the data processed, the financial sector tends to go to the \u201cbuild\u201d route rather than purchase systems from third parties, Thom says.<\/p>\n Although the tech brings added security capabilities, financial institutions and other industries are concerned about the data decryption.<\/p>\n 80pc of the survey respondents told the previously mentioned Bank of Finland survey that they were monitoring quantum tech from an information security perspective.<\/p>\n Quantum decryption not profitable<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think quantum computers are necessarily going to develop in a direction to decrypt codes, because that\u2019s not a marketable product,\u201d Thom says.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that bad actors using the tech do not pose a threat to existing security protocols.<\/p>\n \u201cAs well as super-charging the cybersecurity attacks themselves, quantum computation is likely to be able to break even the strongest of classical computing cryptography algorithms soon,\u201d said TCS\u2019 Ganesh Subramanya in a piece for SiliconRepublic.com<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n But Thom says that decryption is \u201cnot a main driver for the development of quantum computers because it causes problems \u2013 but it\u2019s not the solution to those problems\u201d.<\/p>\n To be clear, recommending businesses to move toward cryptographic protocols that are quantum secure is good advice, he explains.<\/p>\n However, with the technological capabilities of quantum developing at a rapid pace, \u201cit is difficult to control surprise\u201d when it comes to data security, Thom says. \u201cIf you\u2019re a business or a hospital that\u2019s transmitting medical data, it\u2019s not just important that that information is secure today, it has to remain secure for 20 years in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, if you want to control surprise, then you want to make sure that you\u2019re using a protocol that can\u2019t potentially fall victim to it for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is why, according to the quantum evangelist, classical algorithms and other kinds of quantum technology are more useful for encrypting data for long periods rather than quantum computers themselves.<\/p>\n