Quantum Computers in the NISQ Era – Competition or Cooperation?
Falling Walls Circle Tables are lending the spotlight to world-leading scientists, science strategists and policy-makers from academia, business and politics discuss how we can apply science, research and innovation to get the world moving again.
Quantum Computers have made headlines, especially since Google achieved ‘quantum supremacy’ – outperforming what is possible with conventional computation. This Falling Walls Circle Table asks what quantum computers could one day achieve, and the hurdles to reaching these goals.
Quantum Computers operate in a fundamentally different way to conventional computers. This allows them to perform certain tasks that would otherwise be impossible, from accurately simulating molecular processes to optimising complex logistics.
But today’s Quantum Computers remain relatively simple compared to the machines that could unlock such practical applications. Solving useful problems likely remains many years away, and developing algorithms that these quantum computers could run remains difficult.
Progress towards this long term goal will need collaboration, as no one country or company has the resources to develop every component. But the pay off could be substantial for all involved. As Ina Schiefer-Decker explains, “at the end, it’s not about the quantum computer. It’s about a quantum computer that solves problems that make a difference to all of us.”