We are on the cusp of the quantum age, which holds the potential to radically transform how industries are moulded and businesses operate. Quantum supremacy will truly revolutionise our computing capabilities – underpinning emerging technologies with its speed and processing power and furthering the development of next-gen AI.
Though originating in the 1980s, quantum’s potential is yet to be commercially realised (what we mean by quantum supremacy) due to how complex these computers are to engineer, build and program. They have required optimal conditions to operate given their susceptibility to even the smallest atmospheric fluctuations.
Developers have persevered, given the transformative potential and impact of quantum computing. In 2019, Google’s quantum computer calculated in less than four minutes what would take the world’s most powerful computer 10,000 years to accomplish. This makes these machines particularly valuable to sectors such as medicine, manufacturing, and energy – all of which generate vast amounts of data.
There is now gathering momentum for mainstream adoption. IBM has promised its first quantum computer by 2025, with Google countering that it will take four years more, but that its offering to the market will be “useful [and] error-corrected”.
For most companies, that timeframe is within a typical strategic planning cycle! But this is not a typical upgrade or development. Most organisations are not contemplating or ready for the potential impacts, benefits, and risks of quantum capabilities. This will be compounded with rapid adoption.
Now is the time to prepare and ensure appropriate strategies and risk mitigations are developed, whilst also considering numerous ethical and societal implications that quantum will bring. In particular, its impact on AI, security, and future careers.
The AI conundrum
Quantum computing is likely to magnify current challenges with AI – including the effects of bias within datasets and the ensuing decisions AI makes.
In instances where we lack awareness, understanding, and/or control over what is fed into the front end, we cannot be confident in the results. AI’s intrinsic bias problem will multiply with the greater processing power of quantum, becoming close to impossible to check and curb its influence on ever larger datasets.
We need to pre-emptively improve datasets and minimise/counteract bias. This is no easy task, and strong data policies, definitions, and governance will need to be put in place to mitigate flaws.
Staying secure
A second crucial area to address is security. Quantum’s processing power means it will be able to decipher all current standards of encryption and realistically most security systems on day one – a doomsday prophecy but one rooted in very real evidence.
Businesses must rethink how they effectively secure their operations. Government legislation, law enforcement, and corporate cooperation will have to take a more active approach to ensure that security and privacy can be maintained.
Ultimately, it will only take one bad actor to instruct a quantum-powered program in a malicious way and there may be no return – we need to act now to prepare.
Seeking new skills
Finally, new roles and skills must be considered. Quantum will quickly transform the business landscape, resulting in organisations requiring new types of capabilities and career paths.
In addition to people with physics and algorithm development capabilities, for example, organisations should also be looking to those with strong logical, philosophical, and interpretive strengths to better understand quantum query and response dynamics. The quantum era holds huge potential but cannot afford a false start, where the people power and skills required to maximise it are lacking and therefore holding the application of the technology back.
Smart organisations are always looking five, ten or twenty years ahead in their planning. Right now, this needs to incorporate quantum in the expectation of mainstream usage within the next decade, and a need to at least keep pace with, if not ahead of, this trend.
Prepare for lift off
This is not to scaremonger. Quantum will revolutionise the technological landscape and with it shape and transform the business world. There is a greater good that can be unlocked by such power.
What is clear, however, is the need to consider potential consequences now, versus waiting until it is too late. The quantum era is imminent, there is little doubt about that. What is now crucial is putting preparations in place to ensure concerns around AI, security, and careers (among other areas) do not ultimately become blockers to harnessing the incredible capabilities that are coming.
