By Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Senior Technical Writer, Qiskit
The current narrative surrounding quantum computing often sounds a lot like Cold War rhetoric: Single companies or countries are fighting to develop the ultimate computing device that will offer them some sort of strategic advantage. But is that really how scientists feel about it?
While it’s no surprise that countries benefit from a competitive advantage in nascent technology, the scientists I spoke to were more interested in how quantum computers could one day solve some of the world’s toughest problems, or simply thought of these devices as amazing tests of the laws of physics unlike any ever carried out before. The progress already made on today’s quantum computers demonstrates that this kind of world-bettering science requires a global community of researchers cooperating on a shared vision of the future.
Quantum computers expand on our computational capabilities by incorporating the mathematical laws of quantum physics into their calculations, which might allow them to solve presently intractable problems. They might one day benefit society by modeling molecules faster and more efficiently than any of today’s supercomputers, allowing us to develop new drugs to cure diseases or new materials to fassist in the fight against climate change, for example.
Given these benefits, international collaboration has long been at the heart of the quantum computing field. It’s safe to assume that every major company pursuing quantum computing today has scientists hailing from other countries. Jay Gambetta, IBM Fellow and Vice President of Quantum Computing on the IBM Quantum team, was born in Australia. IBM Quantum has staff in Zurich, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and elsewhere. Microsoft and Intel both collaborate with the Technical University of Delft. The founder and manager of Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, Hartmut Neven, was born in Germany. It’s unlikely these companies would be where they are today without the talent and expertise of a global team of scientists.
Professors at labs today know this, and encourage students to apply from around the world. After all, interest and passion in a topic can develop in people from anywhere, and passion turns to talent when fostered, and professors want the best, most passionate and talented students in their labs. Students bring more than their passions, too
“Different cultures might prioritize different things in a scientific sense. So when students go to a new place, they bring a fresh emphasis,” said Sougato Bose, professor of physics at University College, London. Bose himself traveled from Europe to the United States earlier in his career and noticed that quantum computing and quantum error correction were getting much more emphasis than in Europe, where universities focused more on entanglement and quantum communications. International collaboration spreads localized pockets of expertise more globally, while institutions gain knowledge by attracting broader selections of students.
It’s clear that countries are re-thinking their visa policies, or writing rules surrounding export control when it comes to quantum computing technology and expertise in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Still, we can’t forget that as a quantum physics community and here at IBM, we have a common goal that requires diversity of people and thought contributing to a global community.
This isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be competition, and international competition can often lead to rapid technological process, said Vlatko Vedral, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and Centre for Quantum Technologies, but there’s a difference between rivalries among labs, companies or even countries that drives the field forward and a Cold War-style arms race. After all, quantum computing has the ability to simulate not just complex physical systems and run mathematical algorithms, but it might also be useful for climate modeling and financial systems. “We’re facing very similar problems around the world,” Vedral said. “The current pandemic is a great example. We really are all affected in the same way and hope that no matter the solution, it will be available globally. I think the same will go for quantum computers.”
Science need not be a tool of international rivalry — it can be a unifying tool as we strive to put an end to these problems afflicting the entire human population, said Heike Riel, IBM Fellow and Head of Science & Technology and Lead of IBM Research Quantum Europe at IBM Research. “I think science can really help to create understanding, build relationships, and keep peace,” she said.
The IBM Quantum and Qiskit teams are trying their best to preserve the spirit of international collaboration in order to build the best quantum computers, software, and community to benefit the largest number of people; after all, IBM is an international company with labs and researchers across the world. Plus by keeping our software open-source, Qiskit has already drawn contributions from coders in every continent. Take Ismail Yunus Akhalwaya, research scientist at IBM Research. Akhalwaya has a background in Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence, but wasn’t able to program Quantum Computers in his native South Africa, at first. Once IBM Quantum put a Quantum Computer on the cloud, he was able to make a meaningful contribution in the earliest release of Qiskit, writing code that would allow users to automatically initialize qubits based on an input vector.
“It’s heartwarming that from Africa, I could contribute such an important piece of code at the heart of Qiskit,” he said. “I benefited because I had access to real quantum devices to do research on, while the world benefited when I found a small gap and tried to fill it.”
Our team hopes to continue fostering international collaboration by keeping our software open source, bringing Qiskit expertise and events to countries around the world, and ensuring that we’ll have quantum computers available for free over the cloud. We’re also working to host quantum courses available globally, such as our Qiskit Global Summer School and our collaboration with The Coding School.
We’d like to see this field develop, and not into a source international strife, but into a truly worldwide effort working to solve the world’s toughest problems. We hope that you’ll think of this field the same way that we do and help foster a truly global community.
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