Hidden in the back of a laboratory at the IBM Research facility, less than an hour north of New York City, is a massive mass of stainless steel and aluminum that looks like a science fiction teleportation machine.
I say the same to Dario Gil, who is leading a tour of the Yorktown, New York site, as I climb onto the edge of the machine to take a photo. A group of masked engineers look like proud parents. Gil’s eyes shine and he responds with his Spanish accent: “Well, eez uno!”
Gil isn’t kidding: I’m standing on a quantum computer, or at least the outer “cover” of one IBM is building. A form of quantum teleportation will take place inside through the strange properties of quantum mechanics of “superposition” and “entanglement” that make quantum computers vibrate, even if this device does not transport molecules from my own body to another planet .
Quantum computers are the next evolution of today’s fastest supercomputers; the machines are now being developed by a variety of tech giants, like Google, Intel, and Honeywell, and start-ups, like Rigetti and IonQ. The machines are expected to solve currently unsolvable problems in science and business with applications spanning chemical modeling, hedge fund portfolio strategies, drug discovery and artificial intelligence. advances.
The 8,000-pound monstrosity around me, a massive shotgun shell of a device suspended in a square metal frame, is empty now (save for my body), but before the decade, IBM plans to install a quantum computer on it that contains. 1 million of the so-called qubits, the equivalent in quantum computing of the bits of classical computing. The work in progress represents the world’s most ambitious concrete plan for a quantum computer now under construction – at least that’s public knowledge.
Many scientists say that quantum computers of the kind that IBM and Google are building will require at least 1,000 qubits, and possibly up to a million qubits, before the devices are truly commercially useful. Since machines are meticulous and prone to errors, most qubits will dedicate themselves to correcting those problems.
To date, most companies have struggled to produce quantum processors with more than two-digit qubits with fidelity. However, progress continues apace and progress is expected in the coming months.
IBM is confident enough in its capabilities that it is unveiling its complete quantum hardware roadmap for the next decade. A week before publicly revealing its plans on Tuesday, IBM gave Fortune a tour of its Thomas J. Watson Research Center, including a sneak peek at its next machine.
At the moment, quantum computers can’t do much more than perform limited experiments, although that may soon change.
Big Blue aims to bet on a nascent industry, dodge partners, and prepare everyone for an eventuality that may come sooner than anyone expects: the day when quantum computers will be as useful to businesses as computing in the world. world. . cloud, dominated by Amazon and Microsoft. is today. (IBM’s scramble, which appointed a new CEO earlier this year, ranks a distant fifth in cloud computing rankings.)
Despite IBM’s big plans, a competitor like Google could keep moving forward. Hartmut Neven, director of Quantum A.I. Google’s research group told MIT Technology Review earlier this year that it believes Google is also poised to build a 1 million qubit quantum computer by 2030 (Google declined to comment on the news from IBM).
On a broader scale, geopolitical competition is developing in which the United States and Europe compete with China for dominance of infant industry. This month, the White House pledged $ 1 billion for the effort along with companies like IBM, Microsoft and Intel. Meanwhile, China is spending billions of dollars on its own and publishing groundbreaking experiments spearheaded by its scientific leader, quantum physicist Pan Jianwei.
The winner will receive a huge prize. Beyond the incalculable advances in science, technology and business, there are serious potential ramifications for national security. The researchers are already working to shore up the foundations of data security, which could collapse in the hands of a fully functional quantum computer in the future.
IBM’s Research Center represents the company’s first site to reopen amid pandemic shutdowns. Engineers are working hard to meet their deadlines, and this reporter even surprised Gil by pushing some engineers aside to tell them to remember to take a break.
