Microsoft President Brad Smith is worried that the U.S. may be falling behind China in the race for a functioning stable quantum computer and that the administration should prioritize funding for quantum research.
According to press reports, Smith wrote: “While most believe that the United States still holds the lead position, we cannot afford to rule out the possibility of a strategic surprise or that China may already be at parity with the United States,” Smith wrote. “Simply put, the United States cannot afford to fall behind, or worse, lose the race entirely.”
Smith is calling for the Trump administration to increase funding for quantum research, renew the National Quantum Initiative Act and expand a program for testing quantum computers by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. He is also calling on the White House to expand the educational pipeline of people who have the math and science skills to work on quantum machines, fast-track immigration for Ph.D.s with quantum skills and for the government to buy more quantum-related computer parts to build a U.S. supply chain.
Last year, Gil Herrera, NSA Director of Research said that if China developed the first stable functioning quantum computers, banks might not be able to keep transactions private because a quantum computer could crack their encryption, Washington Times. A working quantum computer could also crack existing encrypted data that is usually shared publicly in a scrambled fashion, unveil secrets on U.S. nuclear weapon systems.
Last year, Google unveiled its new quantum chip Willow, a new device the company says was a “milestone” because it was able to correct errors and solve a math problem in five minutes that would have taken longer than the age of the universe on a traditional computer.
While the computers people are used to use bits that are either 0 or 1 to do calculations, quantum computers use “qubits,” which end up being on or off based on probability. Experts say that quantum computers will eventually be useful for problems with nearly infinite possibilities, such as simulating chemistry, or routing deliveries.
Microsoft’s chip, Majorana, has eight qubits, but the company says it has a goal of least 1 million qubits for a commercially useful chip.
Quantum computing systems are considered as the key that can unlock new technologies including new energy systems, medical advances and better batteries. But there are technical hurdles that need to be addressed along the way such as developing chips that can host large numbers of quantum bits or qubits in a stable state without requiring much error correction.
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer representing doctors and nurses who have become whistleblowers reporting Medicare and Medicaid fraud. He also represents whistleblowers in tax evasion cases and tariff fraud cases. Jeff frequently writes on events affecting world social developments. He can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 978-880-4758
