IBM invited its partners for three days to the IBM Innovation Lab in Paris, to share progress in quantum as well as provide partner the chance to educate each other, share progress and state of their projects as well as ample network opportunities.
Here are my four key takeaways from the event:
IBM makes good progress on the innovation of its platoform / hardware.
IBM’s VP of Quantum Jay Gambetta was in Paris and
re-confirmed that IBM is on track with its goal of reaching 4000+ qubits by 2025,
based on the IBM Quantum System Two. For now, the Osprey chip that is available
with its 433 qubits, later this year Condor (1121 qubits) is slated to become available.
At Think 2023 IBM also launched new offerings for quantum, with the IBM Quantum
Safe technology getting the most attention.
Figure 1 – The IBM Quantum Development Roadmap
Source: IBM
Most importantly, partners see progress and are confident that
IBM is the right partner to provide the underlying hardware platform for their
quantum computing projects.
Figure 2 – Jay Gambetta in Paris, May 15th, 2023
Source: Constellation Research
A wide variety of use cases are happening today.
IBM sees five large use cases where quantum is being implemented
today, IBM’s Jamie Garcia walked us through the five use cases:
· Aerospace
and automotive. Prominent use cases here are customer experience (CX),
materials design, structural design and optimization of processes like in
manufacturing.
· Financial
Services. Thepopular use cases are evidently fraud detection, pricing
of derivatives and options, portfolio optimization and risk analysis.
· Hight
Tech. IBM sees seismic imaging, catalysts, supply chain planning and manufacturing
scheduling as key quantum use cases.
· Energy,
environment, and utilities. Portfolio optimization, grid optimization, risk
analysis and options pricing as well as battery design are key use cases for
quantum in these verticals.
· Healthcare
and life sciences. IBM sees the prediction of disease risk, drug discovery
and design as well as protein folding predictions as the most prominent uses
cases in these industries.
Fig 3 – Jamie Garcia presenting in Paris, May 16th,
2023.
Source: Constellation Research
Quantum education remains challenging but is making progress.
Education on what quantum computing is, and what its benefits
are in academia, government and enterprise is a major challenge. More than one
time I heard from attendees referring to the session and saying that they need
to explain what quantum is over and over. The challenge is the novelty of
quantum and that requires education of executives but also requires education of
the workforce. As of today, most attendees held degrees in physics, something not
surprising given the nature of quantum. But that needs to change, and other
disciplines will have to play a role here. It was also good to see the first quantum
education courses coming into place in Canada. The challenge is real and vital
for the industry, as for quantum to grow it needs skilled people who can use, explain,
and advance quantum technology.
Figure 4 – Rafa-Martin Cuevas presenting in Paris May 17th,
2023.
Source: Constellation
The partner network approach is delivering.
With over 100+ attendees
across the whole partner ecosystem – from clients, prospects, services
partners, academic partners, and IBM, it was good to see how the network is
delivering value for the attendees. On such an innovative and fast pacing technology
like quantum, it is key to bring together users, implementors and makers, so
they can align on what is feasible and what needs to be done. The learning
across the use cases is substantial, even if they come form very different
vertical use cases. This is critical at the relatively early phase quantum is
still in its adoption across enterprises, governments, and academia. More than a
few times attendees said they learnt from other industry use cases, partners,
enterprises in other countries and regions, even from academia. It is good for IBM
to bring it all together as synergistic learning is substantial. As quantum grows,
this approach may not be feasible anymore but for now and the next years to
come this is the right approach and IBM deserves kudos for inviting and hosting
the forum. With just around 100 attendees, the event is small scale enough for
a lot of networking to happen, as anyone who wants to speak to another attendee
has the chance to do so. Additionally, a unique atmosphere is created at an event
where almost every attendee is a moderator or panelist, as it breaks the
attendee vs presenter barrier effectively – encouraging networking and
information exchange on a peer-to-peer basis.
Also checkout the multimedia deliverables, the Wakelet of the event here, the 1Slide summary here and the event video below (and don't miss the Day #1 and Day #2 (with a bonus on how Arizaon State is using quantum) summaries here and here).