Two worlds colliding

You may have noticed that I haven't released a new edition of the newsletter in the last two weeks. October is the month of all conferences and exhibition, so I was a bit occupied with this. But, I want to use this newsletter to tell you a bit about the two events I was two weeks ago and the quite big difference between them.

The first event I visited was the GKV.Dialog by 毕博 . Each year the German health insurance industry meets here to discuss trends, new technologies and how the implementation of new technologies progresses. This year, the new technology presented was quantum computing. I had the pleasure to be on stage together with Ulrich Seyfarth and Aaron Veit to tell about the risks and possibilities of quantum technologies. The response from the audience was surprisingly good. We had a lot of questions and discussions in the breaks after. The three main concerns within these discussions were the cost of the new technology, the readiness level and the use cases. There were many misconceptions about quantum computing, like that quantum computing will be used to process bigger amounts of data compared to ML or that quantum computing is just faster computing and many others.

After the GKV.Dialog I jumped into the plane and made my way to the Quantum.Tech conference in London. I unfortunately missed the Ion Maiden concert, but I had the opportunity to have some pints and fish and chips with Christopher Bishop (bass), Sergio Gago (guitar), Thomas Ehmer (keyboard) and Eric Michon (vocals and guitar) after the event. I heard that the gig was amazing from many visitors and there are videos to proof it. I had great discussions with Amir Rasool , Victor Gaspar , Davide Corbelletto , Scott Young and many others about the current state of the quantum industry. It was also amazing to see many new faces mainly of companies who started to explore the applications of quantum computing recently.

But, why are here two worlds colliding as my title says? in the end it boils down to the people. For me as a physicist it was amazing to meet so many other physicists, mathematicians and IT people at the Quantum.Tech in London. Even some critical voices could be heard, like Clemens Utschig-Utschig, MBA , in general the crowd was excited about quantum computing and ready to explore it's power. I think it is great and gives me new motivation every time, but it is also a problem if you only mingle at these events. It is easy to drink your own Kool-Aid and think that everyone shares this excitement. The reality is, most people could not care less about quantum computing or not. And going to events like the GKV.Dialog is a great reminder of that.

Yes, people were also excited about what I told, but not about the technology or scientific aspect of it, but about the possibilities it could bring. And, for the quantum community, with possibilities I don't mean running a QAOA on 56 qubits instead of 40. I mean real business value. Of course, it is important to be also honest here. Real business value might still be months or even years away depending on the application, but I think we are reasonably close to a commercial application of quantum computing that now is the time to really dig into it. This also means tackling misconceptions.

No, quantum computing will likely not revolutionize big data in the coming years. Bringing big data sets on quantum computers is just to costly to have any benefit over classical methods. Will we crack RSA and ECC encryption any time soon? At least not with Shor's algorithm. Does that mean you should prepare and explore? No! As for any new technologies in the beginning there will be only very few, very specific applications. I mean, the internet was developed for scientist to be able to share scientific findings. Pretty sure that this is by far not it's main use anymore.

Similar it will be with quantum computing, we will start out with a couple of very specific and niche applications that will have some benefit, but won't likely be the killer application of quantum computing. But, finding these niche applications within a haystack full of bad ideas is a difficult task. It requires matching up the technical capabilities of current quantum computers with a reasonable mathematical problem formulation and a commercially relevant challenge. This sounds easier than it is and will require a lot of trial and error. Most importantly, it will require the engagement between the quantum industry and the actual problem owners. These problem owners are over worked, have no time or interest to learn details about quantum computers and search easy and working solutions for their problems. So, everything quantum computing can't provide so far. Our task will be to convince exactly these people to test and help us improve quantum computing.

When quantum computing will have succeeded and everyone will use it, it will look obvious that it did. The truth is, it never is. No one could guess what the internet would become when ARPANET was first developed. It is not the natural way of a technology, just to succeed by itself. It requires hard work, dedication and ingenuity. So, this newsletter article is not meant to disillusion you, it should be seen more as a call to arms.

I already talked in my last newsletter article about it, this was exactly the idea behind Banking Bytes event that Thomas Kutschera and I started to organize. The concept is that we bring the quantum industry, academia and problem owners together to discuss. To correct misconceptions about quantum computers at the problem owner side, but also to give the ideas of the quantum computing industry a reality check. Most important, it is not a sales event. Yes, we have sponsors, but the discussions will be focused on value to the audience. The concept also convinced Malte Jütting from KfW and Dr. Marc Karahan from KI Park and we could gain their huge support, without which the event never would have happened. So, if you are working in the finance industry and you live in and around Frankfurt, register here and come by tomorrow (Wednesday 9th October). There are not many seats left, so first come first serve. If you are interested to organize a similar event in your industry, please reach out. But, for now: Read you next time!