World’s Top Quantum Players: IBM, Google, Microsoft Lead the Charge

Welcome to Impact Quantum, the podcast where we

unravel the mysteries of quantum computing without requiring a

PhD in physics. Join host Frank

LaVine, a self proclaimed quantum enthusiast, and

Candice Gilhooly, a proud quantum curious individual.

As they dive into the latest developments in the quantum realm

from quantum annealing to the global race for quantum supremacy,

They break down the big ideas shaping the future of computing,

business, and security. In this episode, they

discuss the three major players in the quantum space, IBM,

Google, and Microsoft, the implications of quantum

encryption, and why quantum tunneling is more than just

SCI FI teleportation. They also explore how

quantum computing could transform everything from weather prediction

to national security. Oh, and did we

mention Impact Quantum is now the number five ranked quantum

computing podcast on Feedspot? Not bad

for a spin off born from too much quantum talk on the data

driven podcast. Subscribe now and stay

ahead of the quantum curve. Let's get started after these

ten seconds of dubstep.

Hello, and welcome back to Impact Quantum, the podcast where we want to

explore the emerging field of quantum computing,

what that means, not just in terms of the actual physical

research and hardware, but also what that means for business, society,

and economies. My name is Frank Lavinia. I'm a quantum

enthusiast, and it was, a nice

fall day in Seattle when I've discovered

the wonders of quantum computing. And, with me, I have

Candace Kahuli, who is a quantum

curious individual. How are you, Candace? I'm good. Thank you,

Frank. I I'm great. I wanna say the first time I

heard about quantum computing was maybe

when I was eight years old, and we were playing

in an Armonk, New York

at the IBM club. And my father, as you know, was

an IBM inventor, and he was a quantum physicist amongst

other things that I didn't understand. And I

still don't quite. But, I remember,

like, hearing the hearing about quantum, quantum, quantum.

And this was when we were in in this park in in Armonk when we

were, like, taking trails. So it's always

been something that I has been in my world.

Right? But, unfortunately, I didn't get that

side of of of the, of the parental genes. And

and I'm not a mathematician and I algorithms are

beyond me, but I still am am am so

fascinated. And that's why I'm really excited about what we're doing here,

about being quantum curious and not being afraid to ask questions to

understand what's going on. I also wanna thank our listeners.

Our listeners are really interested in what we've put out there, and we've been getting

a really great response. And thank you so much for being

interested. And, you know, let us know what else you'd like us to

talk about. We'd love to see you. There, Candace. I'll stop you right there,

Candace. Not only are listeners and viewers so

awesome, we we are now the fifth, according to Feedspot,

the fifth ranked quantum computing podcast,

which is phenomenal. I think we were, like, nineteenth or

twentieth, not that long ago. Now we're fifth. And our

sister podcast has also seen a good uptick too. So thank you to all our

listeners. I know a lot of folks join us here from the data driven podcast

too because this podcast spun off because Andy

and I were talking so much about quantum computers on the main show that people

are getting annoyed. But that's okay because now they come

here, and they come here. I mean, that's the beauty of, like, you know, the

the the modern media age. You can spin off a very niche subject in a

niche channel, and, you know, the costs are, you know, effectively

negligible. Right? It's not like we needed to, you know, create a

new cable channel, get more satellite time, and, like, convince all the cable

carriers to do it. Like, it's just you just literally a few

keyboard strokes and some graphics you throw together and a little

bit of branding magic like you did. And bada bing

bada boom, and as they say in Jersey. Yeah.

You have a new show. So thank you, everyone. So you and I so first

off, I was in Las Vegas last week, for an

internal, Red Hat conference. And, I

did meet, I didn't know he was an

IBM Quantum ambassador, which is something like the

Microsoft MVP program, but for Quantum. And we were

talking about this in our virtual green room, kind of like the three leading companies

in the Quantum space. And, when you

listed them in order, I I would agree with I would agree with the order

which you did it. Right? So,

do you wanna say the three major players in the quantum space, at least in

terms of big tech? Right. In terms of big tech, we have,

we have Google. Well, I'm sorry. Number one, we have IBM. We really just have

to really put IBM first. We have IBM, and then we have

Google, and then we have Microsoft. So we've

got three FAANGs who are really

devoted to wanting to be the first,

just to, you know, get to market and get customers and

convince convince customers

that they need to move over to this,

for a multitude of reasons. But frankly, the number one

reason should be data security. I mean,

this is this is really what quantum, you know,

is the convincing ticket there is that you're gonna have the kind of

data security that other people don't. And

I don't wanna get political or anything, but I am gonna say

that, you know, at right now, privacy and the

protection of our private data, if you're in The

States, as you see is a little bit too open.

So, you know, the idea of of protecting your

data, protecting your company's data, you know, that's

vitally important, and that's what quantum can bring them.

Well, also, you know, they all it's not just, you know, any one particular

government or administration. I mean, you have a very

real national security threat when it comes to,

you know, the idea of being able to break RSA encryption. Right? I

think we went a little bit at this before, but basically all modern

photography, more or less, is based

on the idea that it's hard to factor prime numbers.

And quantum computing, thanks to research. About the time I think

your dad would have started at IBM, Shor's algorithm

proves it could be done a lot faster, which can cause a lot of,

cascading failure problems. Right? So everything from your credit card to,

you know, national security nuclear codes could be

broken in mere moments. Right. You

know, and there's a big rush now to get what they call

quantum resistant or quantum proof

encryption. So it's the idea that you can at least have

some kind of protection against these machines

that, you know, whether they come in, you know, five

years, three years, or twenty years are gonna be a big game changer for

society, particularly now that we're all of our infrastructure is so based

on, you know, not just electronic, but securing those

electronic transactions. Right. Right. Absolutely.

And I was thinking about just bringing us back. I I know we might be

jumping around as coach, but, you know, you have America

who, you know, is the number one player, you know, in

this kind of quantum race, if you will, you know, then you have

obviously, you have China. Right? And then

after that, which is kind of interesting is you have Germany.

And Germany is really trying to

be the standout, in the EU,

for quantum. There's a company D Wave that,

I've been reading their press releases lately, and they're really

exciting in how they're trying to move forward to get it's a

it's a hybrid concept clearly. Right. But, but

it's exciting nonetheless of what they're trying to do, and they're pushing

really, really hard. Same with The UK. You

know, they're on the list of major players as well as as well as India.

But I think it's important to kind of

note who's trying to stand out because

they're pouring money into it. Absolutely. And you're seeing because I

don't I think anyone anyone can realize that there's a huge

national security, and economic benefit to

whatever company, whatever, national economy develops

quantum first. I mean, this is this could be as big

or bigger than the transistor was or microchips or microprocessors. Right?

And we saw how much that, it literally made Silicon Valley.

Right? Even if they don't manufacture anything now, it it put all the

people in kinda that one geography, created a whole

ecosystem of venture capitalists and all these types of things

that I think a lot of a lot of smaller towns and other

places have have have struggled to replicate that level of that right now.

Varying no levels of success. Right? Austin is doing pretty well, in

terms of their startup ecosystem. New York had Silicon Alley

for a number of years. But, you know, the the yardstick by

which everything is measured is Silicon Valley. Right? And I don't I don't think that's

gonna change anytime soon. I have some faith in the Baltimore

Washington corridor because of, you know, just

government research and, you know, the fact that one of,

the footprints for Amazon's h q two is in Northern Virginia. Right? So it's

not not that hard to imagine things going well

here. And as we were talking in the, virtual green

room, I'm gonna share this little video here.

I don't know if I can include the sound too, but,

let's give it a shot. One of the things that,

I wished we had, and this would be a good practical example of

quantum computers, is the idea of a,

and there's my dog who's making a cameo. Hello.

Hello. Do you wanna be a quantum physicist?

So,

one of the things that's actually kind of it it really is, like, indeterminate

here is this. There's a storm that's coming, and some people are saying that basically

depending on which way the storm goes,

you know, over the Great Plains Of Canada. Right. We're we're

either, you know you got a lot of snow recently up in Montreal. Seriously,

I I, between, yesterday and then

and the night before, I got we got two feet. And Wow.

Two feet. And not even two days before that, we

got a foot. So and now it has, like, a drift

of about four feet. But the thing is, it's Montreal, so the roads are

clear. Okay? Like They're used to that. The roads are

totally clear. Today is about the day after is about them

creating sidewalks for everybody again. Mhmm. You know? And then they do that

thing where they send, you know, like, six trucks down. I mean, they they really

have it down. They really have it down. Plus, they have that private

system where if you get your your driveway,

you get, plowed out every time it snow. So there's a lot of

small plows out there that can get it done too. So yeah.

But if there's still, like, at this point, over four feet of snow on the

ground, a %. But I'd like to know, like,

they're saying it's supposed to snow for example, they're saying it's supposed to snow every

single day between now and Thursday. Okay?

And what I've come to understand is snowing, you know, every

day, you know, in the winter here in Montreal, you can

expect one to two inches overnight. I consider that now

a dusting. It's funny how quickly you adapt.

Right? Like, I know I know around here, the first storm is always,

like, chaos. And then, you know, one of the things that

is unique about kind of the DC Baltimore area is we're far enough

north that we get kind of

Northeastern winters kind of. Okay. We kinda get the low the

the the lower edge of that, and we're also far enough south that

we also get kind of the southeastern storm patterns in the summer as

well. Right? So for the longest time, I really hated that. I'm like, we get

the worst. You know, we get terrible winters. We get terrible summers. And then I

realized, you know, I got stuck in Dallas because they got literally,

like, an icing, like, just a little dusting, and the whole place was shut down.

I was stuck in my hotel room, like, two years ago now. And I was

just like, you know what? Maybe it's good we get, like, these different extremes

because we're at least prepared for it. And, you

know, in the DC area, the first big storm of the season

shuts everything down. And then people remember they get the muscle

memory comes back, and they remember how to do this, the roads and stuff. Then

the the the future storms don't seem so bad. But what's really

interesting about this one is that because it's so far west, it could it could

go like a couple of change degrees. It could or based on different

factors, it could go northeast and become big nor'easter. Mhmm.

Right? And it can go south. A lot of my colleagues, because, you know, I

work at Red Hat, they they live in the Raleigh area in North Carolina, and

they're predicting anywhere between, like, three inches and 13 inches or something

like that, which is one heck of a range. And we're we're somewhere in

the, you know, the five to 10 range. Right? So,

I don't know how well Raleigh is prepared for a snowstorm, but I suspect that

Baltimore is is a little better prepared. But it's just interesting, like,

you know, here's a great practical example. The range

of three to 13 is really complicated. I mean, what do you do? Like, you

know, there there's those are pretty big ranges.

So, like, if you had a quantum system that would be able to better provide

a little more guidance earlier on terms of what the weather patterns are gonna do,

you can't predict the future. It's still very hard. But,

you know, it would definitely give you a little bit more insight into what's gonna

happen with the weather. Because weather patterns are relatively

predictable. Right. But it's also taking a vast

amount of information. Mhmm. Right? And putting it

together. And kind of

interesting is I don't know if this might lead us to,

our quantum annealing conversation. Yeah. Let's talk about

that because that's that's something that I know that D Wave

D Wave really excels at the quantum annealing

story, and it kinda get into

what exactly is quantum annealing? Because I know you were you were doing some

research on that. Right. So quantum annealing is the

idea of of solving something

in the in the most optimal way. Okay?

And you have to have a vast

amount of information in order to work with it. And you it comes

together, and then when it gets heated up and all this information is

coming together, at some time, it stops,

and it, like, cools itself down. So

almost like taking a sword. And when you're forging a sword,

you know, in in the heat, and then you're going from the heat

to the cold and it's coming together. And at the moment

that it gets cold and it comes together, it then makes a

decision on what is the optimal way to go. And

I thought that was kind of really interesting and and and cool.

I I thought that was the issue way to put it. Right? Because, like, I

never got such a good example of of quantum annealing. I'm basically

for the data science geeks here, it's a way to find the global

minimum of a function. Right? So which is a

fancy way of saying kind of what is the low point. Right? So when you're

dealing with AI, you're dealing with algorithms, optimizations kinda come to mind. Right?

You wanna find out, you know, where is the the most bang for the

buck. You can find that with traditional compute, but you're

never really guaranteed if it's the global one. Right?

But you can always find the local one. That's relatively easy to find.

Right? You just keep searching for is this if I make an

adjustment in this direction, does the error rate go down? Does the loss rate go

down? That sort of thing. So you can always you can always find it, but

you do know if it's the local or the global.

You really don't know. Whereas quantum annealing, and again, I

wanna dive further into this too, promises to find you the

global one, which would have enormous implications in

optimization of, you know, how Uber gets a car to you,

how FedEx will track a pack, get a package to you,

garbage routes, that sort of thing, all the way down to, you know,

ML optimizations and things like that. It has enormous

potential to change things. And in a way, I don't think we can fully

appreciate just yet. I agree. You know? And,

again, this is something that, I heard about this

through Business Wire. It was a press release that came

out from, D Wave, and

it's exciting. It's exciting what they're trying to do. It's exciting that they're they're

putting it out there. They're making enough noise that they gotta feel pretty

solid about it. And, I think that the what the

latest, news I saw is that they've just gotten another customer.

And that's a very big deal because, essentially,

you know, when someone first like we said, you know, it it's an entirely different

architecture. And it it it's it's expensive to move

over to to kind of create. Nobody's really done that before on

any kind of scale. So I think it's very exciting that D

Wave is making noise about what they're doing, and

I think it's I find it very exciting. Yeah. D Wave right now is the

leading company in developing quantum annealers. Mhmm.

And it is what's different about quantum

annealing is it's not a general purpose kind of quantum computing model. Like, you have

those are morally more where IBM and Google play in

that. But it really it really shines

on these opt these these optimization problems, which could have enormous

benefits in in a lot of different use cases. So it's not a full

on, full quantum kind of computing solution with

gates and things like that. And but it does do a really good job with

that. But, and

then while you were gone, so I was at this conference last week in Vegas.

And I think one day I spoke for six hours,

and which is quite a bit. And then the second

day, I only had to speak for

maybe four hours. So

it was pretty wild. It was, but, you were sending me, like

exhausting. Oh, I was sending you notes nonstop. Right? I know. I was like, oh

my god. I wanna look at that. And then I was just like, I'm gonna

look at it when I get back to my hotel. I kinda get a quiet

space because you there really are no quiet spaces in Vegas.

And every time I got back to my hotel room, like, the first night after

the speaking for six six hours or so, I was like,

I'm gonna take a quick power nap, and then I'm gonna go to dinner. Close

my eyes. Next thing I know is four in the morning. So it was, like,

6PM to, like, 4AM. I was like, oh, wow. But I totally

needed that. You know? It's, I I don't know. Vegas

is Vegas has changed. I think we were talking about that earlier today, like, on

a on a separate call. Like, I don't know.

Normally, Vegas is just not what it used to be pre pandemic.

It's just very different animal now. And, like, I'm not sure if I like

it more or less. Definitely less. Just a question of

how much less. Maybe I could

do a quantum annealing algorithm to figure out how much less.

Just to figure out how to fix it. Right? Well, in in fact, you

know, I wanted to go back and I wanted to say, you know, we've talked

about quantum annealing and Mhmm. Because we're we're quantum

curious. And I know we just got we know we talked about what's going on

in the news and what different companies are doing, but I thought I could, like,

give you a term or two and have you, you know,

explain it because there are certain terms that are coming up that I

think are quite valuable to understand from the very beginning.

Sure. So I wanted to so we just talked about quantum

annealing. You know, that's a was a good term to kind of understand.

I'd like to ask you about quantum tunneling. We touched upon it,

but more time. So tell me about

quantum tunneling. So quantum tunneling is the

idea where you

allow us in the past through energy barrier barriers.

So instead of having to push the

electrons through. Now, again, this I'm not a physicist. I didn't stay in a Holiday

Inn last night. But

quantum tunneling is the idea that, you have the ability

to work through,

potential energy barriers that classically you wouldn't be able to do. Right?

So, like, the idea that, in normal physics, if a

if a particle does not have enough energy to

get through a barrier this is a world we live in. Right? Like, if I

if I try to run through that wall right now, it'll

hurt me, and I'll fall back on the floor. Yes.

But in a quantum kind of world,

I'm not a particle per se. I'm gonna behave like a wave. Right? So

I could theoretically

push through that wall and appear on the other side even if I don't have

enough energy to kinda break through the wall.

Okay. So this

actually gets into a Schrodinger equation, which is at

the point where, I don't know if I've had enough coffee yet.

But at the wave function,

does not drop to

zero. In other words, I don't quite bounce entirely off the wall, but

some aspect of my energy does get through there.

Okay. And there's a number of ways that this kinda works.

Right? So, quantum tunneling,

in stars and then the sun, it allows

protons,

in the sun's core to get away and fuse.

Right? In quantum and

semiconductors, it allows electrons to move

through barriers in nanotechnology and mono and and and

modern electronics. Okay. You can all there's

also applications in terms of scanning tunneling, microscopes,

quantum annealing. It it it actually does play there. Right? So, tunneling helps

find optimal solutions for escaping local local

minima and and energy landscapes. Exactly. So I'm happy that

we talked about quantum annealers first. Right? Right.

So part of the deal is that from what I understand is that in

quantum tunneling, you know, like, you

talked about the energy and that you the energy you didn't the the

particles might not have enough energy to get through barriers. But in a quantum

world, they can not need it. It may not need all

the energy to do that. So I may not and a good way to think

of it is good way to think of it is, let's just say

I did run into that wall at top speed. Right?

But not enough to break through the drywall. But what

would make it through would be the sound waves and the

energy shock wave of my I was

gonna say something rude, but of me slamming into that

would make it through. So in some sense, I would have some impact on the

other side. Okay. Right? It's not exactly

a perfect analogy, but I think it kinda shows you that. Well, that kinda works

because I I just looked up this definition, and because of

what you're saying, what you just said just made the sentence I read make more

sense. Right. And it said, like, imagine navigating a

maze, and classical computing will try every

corridor. But quantum tunneling helps

you pass through some walls to reach the

exit faster. So not you can't get through

everything, but you can get through some things to get to your

outcome. And I think there's a number of engineering

outcomes you could pull out of that that that. And I think it really

explains certain quantum phenomena that a regular classical

physics, can't explain. Right? And I I

still think there's a lot that we don't know. Certainly, there's a lot I don't

know, but I mean, also a lot that researchers don't know, in that regard.

I I totally understand. I mean, there's stuff like there's stuff that, you know, my

dad was doing in in the seventies that, like, now

they're they're, you know, they're optimizing and

working on with quantum. And so it's it's

sometimes, you know, everybody's on their own kinda timeline. Do you

know what I mean? Right. And, you know, when they when they can catch up,

then, like, the great the great innovation can happen. Right? Well, it's

always that that that argument of, like, kind of pure abstract math.

And it's gonna take sometimes a century, you know, or

decades for it to find a practical application.

Exactly. Exactly. If the practical application is what matters, like, you

know, they weren't people did not have cell phones. You weren't calling

Ubers. You weren't needing to optimize

all these different, like you were, like we were talking about air traffic

control. Right. Right. And this is a perfect example,

right? Never have there been more planes

and helicopters and flying objects going around at the same

time around the same areas,

as ever before. And it's

leading to errors, and it's leading to human errors,

and it's it's just too too crowded. It's it's a it's a it's a perfect

visualization, actually, of of of, you know,

how we need better scalability to fix the problems,

to optimize the data and make it so, you know, this is

the best way that we release the planes or, you know, this is the

best way that, you know, we bring them in or whatever it is. I don't

understand it. And that's not to say that what they're doing isn't great.

You know, I just think that, like, obviously, with everything else, the computers and the

technology are gonna help them come up with more optimal ways of doing

things. I I also think too that I think the pandemic has had an

effect on this, because a lot of

muscle memory, I think, got lost

and, because of the pandemic.

Do you know what I mean? People the people not having those jobs that,

you know, that they eliminated because they they shut down they shut down Not even

not even that, but not even that. It's just they went from having this,

you know, being operating at full capacity to no capacity for a

while. And then the demand the pent up demand is up. Like, you kinda

see that. I think part of the reason why Vegas has changed from my point

of view is that a lot of it was pent up demand. Right? And a

lot of things were shuttered. So you have to reskill people and things like that.

And I think that air traffic controllers may be an extreme

example, but I think that, you know, I know people who've gone to Disney

post, pandemic and then kind of pre

pandemic. Oh, okay. That would be interesting. That would that that's a marked

change that people will describe because, like, just the the the

tribal knowledge, kind of like just the stuff that it's hard to kinda capture.

It's just kind of like you learn it from when you join an organization. Yeah.

I know. I think there's been a a break in that, and it's not necessarily,

like, enough to

ruin things, but it's definitely enough to change things. Right? So I think

that there's and, you know, there's a lot of weird economy things kinda happening

here. So, like, I don't know. I think that and

particularly the DCA Airport a good example

of that. Right? Because it's just a very busy airspace with a lot of security

restrictions around it and stuff like that. So, I I mean, I

have to say I because I fly into I fly into LaGuardia

all the time, you know, at least at least four times a year. I I

I come, you know, and I see mom. And now that it's

been completely renovated, it's beautiful.

Now you might have to walk from, you know, one part of the

airport, Everyone has to walk from one part of the airport to the other part,

and I swear to God, it must be half a mile, if not more. Like,

it's really a long schlep, but, but it's still

really designed quite well. Well, this summer, I went to I had to

go to LaGuardia, and I didn't know that they had,

renovated it. Okay. And I land, and I'm like,

where am I? Where am I? Yeah. This is way too

clean to be LaGuardia. And I

was just The bathrooms are beautiful. It was like bravo. I think

they spent, like, five years or something doing it, but bravo

because it looks great. Yeah. Yeah. It really does. And,

no. It was completely unrecognizable. So kudos for them for

doing that. The next thing we were

talking about, in kind of the virtual green room

was

spooky action at a distance. Yeah. And

you had sent me an article, I think, from Wired magazine and a

couple other places where when I think of

spooky action at a distance or quantum, oh, gosh.

What's the actual term for it?

It's Einstein. Entanglement. Entanglement. Yep. Entanglement. Right?

I always thought of it as that you have the potential to do a super

liminal, which means faster than the speed of light, communications or

reliable communications where you don't have to worry about not having a

cell phone signal. Right? And that's for the right? Where you're not dealing with just

traditional radio waves. You could if you could capture that ability, these

two particles, whether they're in the same room or on the other side of

the universe, theoretically, because I don't think anyone's actually tested it that

far apart, you could have

instantaneous or relatively instantaneous communication,

regardless of what's between you and it, which my first thought was, wow, this would

be great for communications. Right? You always watch Star Trek. Right? And they beam into,

like, the middle of the planet. They still have good service. Right? I

can't go to, like, you know, the supermarket without hitting a

dead spot. Right? So I thought about that. But then

the use case you sent me, and here's the

article from Wired magazine. It was from Oxford University,

and they basically use particle entanglement to kind of work as a as

a supercomputer together. Right? So it kind of becomes a way to link

up different,

different, processors. So

Yeah. I was like me about that. Yeah. I I I I picked this up

today, and I found it, and they're talking about teleportation.

And I'm thinking, wait a second, that's like Star Trek stuff. And

but it's it's, it's exactly what they're talking about with with quantum

entanglement, having two particles that are separated from each

other, having them completely react

to one another and affect one another.

And from the entanglement and affecting them, they can

transfer information. So what they were talking about here was that

they transfer data from one particle to another.

And so it was the first, you know, with, you know, air quotes, you

know, transport teleportation of data.

And so now that's really

exciting. Right? What does that mean? What's the next

step? You know, where do we go now? You know,

you know, how much energy did it take? Was it, you know, was

it overwhelming? You know, like, everything. We wanna know everything. Right? Isn't

that exciting? I think it's amazing. I think it's just it just

shows you just I don't think we can fully grasp

the future here of what is gonna be possible

with this. Right? In the same way, you couldn't go back to, you

know, twenty, thirty years ago and say, you

know, the Internet plus mobile

phones is gonna enable a new kind of connectivity.

Right? Like, I didn't rent a car when I was in Vegas. Right? I didn't

use, like, traditional cab. Everything I did was through a

ride share app. Or, well, okay. They

had buses back and forth between the hotels and the airport because of the conference.

But, my flight home was way

outside of those things. So, I mean, it just

shows you just how impactful

technology can be when you combine them in ways that just really couldn't

imagine before it was available. You know? And I

think that we're we're experiencing that now.

You know? Right. This is the this is the the

biggest evolutionary change in

computer processing, in in science that

this is the next phase change. Right. Since the fifties, yeah. And so, and this

is the very beginning of it, right? And, you

know, that's why being a part of it now,

being curious now, you know,

being open to getting more information and understanding

now, is really going to be

beneficial for you and beneficial for everyone. It me. You

know? It's important to know what's going on and why it's

happening. You know, I don't have to know how to do it.

Right. I just have to know, you know, how it

optimizes whatever it is that I'm already doing.

Right? Exactly. And, you know, not everyone

I think we were talking to a startup founder not that long

ago and and he was saying, he goes, honestly, there's probably too many

quantum physicists in the quantum computing field. And I thought that was kind of an

odd thing to say. But, you know, you're gonna need people who can

market quantum computing technologies. You're gonna need people who can

develop for that. You're gonna need engineers who could install it and

and and and and, you know, maintain it. You're also gonna need

recruiters who could pull down all of those people. So, like, it's not

just gonna be it's just like, you know, not everybody in the

big tech field is a computer science has a computer science degree or

an electrical engineering degree. Right? It takes a village of

people to support an industry. And I think that this is gonna be the same

thing here is that, obviously, the more you know, the better,

but it's not a, it's not a hard requirement.

Completely agree with you. I mean, I'd rather be I'd rather

be the one using the technology

than, being someone that just has no idea what's going on and then being

fully replaced by the people that under that understand the technology. You need to know

what's going on. So I think that, you know, that's why the news

has been so exciting lately. And, you know, and

reading what's going on and then writing something out in my

Tech Whispers newsletter. Again,

just trying to kind of understanding things, from, you know, the

curious standpoint and following the journey of knowledge, you

know, when I really, you know, you you told me to start

working on data privacy, and understanding it.

And so I was doing that. And then when I hit upon

the idea of quantum of how it's going to it's going to

completely, you know, really protect the information

in a way that what we have going on now just can't.

And I said, oh my god. That's the that's the game

changer. That's the game changer. And so that's why you

see, you know, US is really, you know, is leading the

charge, and I guess I don't no one really knows what's going on

in China because it's China. And Germany

is being very forthcoming about what they're what they're discovering and what they're

doing. And this and this teleportation that came

out of The UK. I think these are

these are some interesting companies to kind of watch.

What do you mean by that? Absolutely. I think this is gonna be the space

race or a space race of the next

twenty years. So one of the talks I gave

at this conference was basically talking about AI

and, you know, how AI is the be all and end

all of today. But I I point out, like, you know, the technology

industry comes in hype waves and they

generally correspond to decades. Right? So nineties was very clearly,

you know, the web. Right?

The two thousands are interesting because it the first part of the decade was

really about social. Thinking Myspace,

you know, Facebook, etcetera, etcetera. Then you

had, the twenty tens, late '2 thousands, early '20

tens was really about mobile and the cloud.

Right? And I think that those are kinda two sides of the same coin. Right?

You wanna be able to, you know, deploy something and scale quickly and update

quickly. You know, they they they I think they kinda made each other. I think

they were kinda two peas in a pod. And I would say

now we're clearly in AI as

the the hype wave story of the twenty twenties.

Could that change? I mean, certainly a lot of people are concerned about, you know,

being in the midst of an AI bubble.

Only time will tell. But I I think that, the next

type wave, in my opinion, is going to be

somehow quantum related. Will it be, you know, a

full on practical quantum computer that you can drop in your server?

Maybe. Will it be but I think it's gonna require a lot more quantum

awareness, more so than that. And

who knows? I mean, a lot of people thought that VR and the

metaverse would be the hype wave of the twenty twenties

that kinda hit and landed with a thud.

Although I wouldn't call it I wouldn't count it out entirely yet. I think there's

still time for that to cook. But until there's a practical use

case for it. Yeah. Because I think that you have to give that some time

to cook because, I do believe that, you

know, blockchain and encryption

have their space in data privacy.

Yeah. And so that I think is really it's

it's doesn't sound very sexy, but I think that that's

actually where it could be, you know, king.

Because, you know, like I said, everybody's data

is very exposed right now. And I think

people are feeling exposed. You know, when you feel exposed, you get

vulnerable, you don't make the right decisions. So,

I think that that's a problem for sure. So, yeah, there's a future. I don't

think it's as big as what they wanted to make it. I remember when I

made my Twitter, my Twitter name, mama of metaverse.

Mama of metaverse. Right? I was like, I am so smart. I have the best

Twitter handle in the world. At the time, I was working for a blockchain company.

I'm like, I am that cool. Mhmm.

And then it hit the, what the crypto what was it? They call it the

crypto winter and and, you know, and then that was it. Right? Because

whatever. But But I still think I still think it has it has some

kind of future to it. It won't be, you know, as big as

people thought, but I do think that there's some

value there. I think time will tell. And and when it comes

to VR, again, I don't wanna sidetrack too much, is that

I've been playing with VR in one form or the other since the mid nineties.

Right? So there used to be something called virtual reality markup language.

You know, that never really took off. Right? It

was the idea that you can kinda create this virtual environment in your browser

and explore three d space through there. It had some interesting

ideas. Then there was something a few years later called

Adobe atmosphere, which was, like, this way you can create these three d worlds and

interact with them. I do find it interesting to watch what the kids

do. Right? So the kids have, you know, not this last Christmas,

but the Christmas before, they got the meta headsets,

you know, the Oculus. And for a while, it was all the rigs.

It would that's the only thing they would play. Then they stopped.

And over the last couple of days, they started going getting back

into it, which I find interesting.

Right. I just think it's going to be a video game platform

for the foreseeable future. Although I will say when I was flying, one guy had

the the fancy Apple one. Okay. Oh, yeah. And that would

be great because you could just not be, like, on an airplane with, like, the

seat, like, right in front of your face. That would be useful.

But, Yeah. I just use one of those blackout masks. Right. Right.

Right. Get on to have, like, nice, like, these nice, like, beautiful cat eyes and

and I have these, like, you know, soundproof things that I listen

to. But, I I I'm

very much a believer in that quantum is gonna be, like, kind of the next

hype wave. Mhmm. And I think that, you know, for our listeners,

you know, even if you don't have a degree in physics, I don't. I don't

either. You know, if you start

getting familiar with the terminologies sooner rather than later, you're gonna have

a a a much more interesting career trajectory than you don't.

And, you know, when we were talking with the

various startup founders that we were talking to, right, like, you know, they said,

what's your what do you think, you know, the potential for

quantum is? And, you know, I always start with the encryption and the

national security aspect because where I live. Right? You know,

I live where that's kind of a a topic of

much concern. And but, you know,

also too, like, you know, whatever country, company, etcetera,

develops quantum computing first is gonna have these advantages

in pharmaceutical research, material science, you know, cryptography.

Right? Like, all of these things are gonna kinda you're gonna get with it. You

know, you're gonna kinda get get for free. Right? You kinda buy the happy the

happy meal. Right? And you get the burgers and the fries and the

toy. Right? And you could tell I have little

kids. But the, I think

I think it's one of those things where I think it's going to be the

the the storm clouds as it were are are all kind of forming in

one way, and it's just clearly, it's going to be a big deal.

I agree. And that's why I'm so excited to, you know,

talk about this with you and expand my knowledge and my

understanding. And, you know, we're gonna be speaking to you

know, we have been behind the scenes, you know, speaking to some start

up, founders that, you know,

are involved in the quantum space and are so

excited about what they're doing, and how they

really see how what they're doing will bring about

really positive optimization and change

for the whole global, you

know, economy, which I think

is great. It's not just about, you know, I'm developing a product

and it's for this reason, but this is to actually make make things

better. Right. And there's nothing wrong with developing products, but, like, how

many more b to b SaaSs can the world,

like, take? You know what I mean? Like, it's kinda like I think I think

once we start getting because I think one of the one of the criticisms of

technology is that, you know, it went from, you know, being very optimistic and very

you know, change the world to, you know, becoming just about

money. And don't get me wrong. I like money as much as the next guy

or gal, but, I think quantum has an as a,

a unique opportunity for folks to do to both,

make money and change the world, in a way that we haven't really seen

since probably the advent of the personal computer or maybe the advent

of, you know, the Internet, being a consumer tool.

So Candace and I have been working on the,

behind the scenes, and, it's not gonna be just her and me kinda talking

in the future. We're gonna have more guests, more doing this.

But, if you wanna stay up to date on all the

happenings in this space, I highly recommend you go to

impactquantum.com. Once again, it's

impactquantum.com and, click on join. You could

join our newsletter, and, we'll we'll get you,

up to date on some of the things that we're working on, and you'll

be more aware of the cool stuff that we got working in in the

pipeline behind the scenes. Some interesting start ups, some interesting,

founders, and some some academic folks that we hope to have on the

show and kinda talk about, what's coming.

Exactly. And to round out more information. So, you know, please, you

know, so contact us and subscribe,

and and, you know, let us know, you know, if you want to, where this

is gonna be posted. You wanna add any notes, any

questions, what you would like to hear more about, we'd

love to know, and we wanna be here, you know, for

our own edification and yours. So thank you so

much. Thank you. And we'll let Bailey finish the

show. And that's a wrap for this episode of Impact

Quantum. We've covered everything from quantum annealing to

national security, from the top players in the field to the

global race for quantum dominance. Whether you're a

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