The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Ignacio Cirac: 'There is going to be a quantum revolution in the home, we must be prepared'

2023-05-09T09:49:11.962Z

Highlights: Spanish physicist Ignacio Cirac is one of the 'fathers' of quantum computing. He is developing the hardware and software for this new technology that will change the world. Atoms, for example, can unfold and be in two different places—in parallel universes—at the same time. Once we have it, it will serve for several applications that we know, but there will also be many that we do not yet know, says Cirac. The technology is not yet as developed, but it already shows the power it has.


One of the 'fathers' of quantum computing, who is developing the hardware and software of the new technology that will change the world, told Clarín.


There is a silent revolution, which is happening in some laboratories of the world, where they manipulate the smallest of matter, atoms. It turns out that there physics plays with totally different rules to those we are used to. Atoms, for example, can unfold and be in two different places—in parallel universes—at the same time.

What if we could make a computer whose bits pivot between those universes and take information from the two simultaneously? What calculation capacity would a machine with these characteristics have? Is it science fiction?

None of that. Spanish physicist Ignacio Cirac, one of the "fathers" of quantum computing, is currently developing the hardware and software for this new technology that will change the world. He does so at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany, where he is the director.

Spanish physicist Ignacio Cirac, specialized in quantum computing. He is in Valencia to make a presentation to rectors from all over the world.

Cirac is currently in Valencia, Spain, where it will participate as an exhibitor in the international meeting of rectors Universia 2023 that started this Monday, and in which 54 Argentine universities participate -including the UBA-, as well as the Minister of National Education Jaime Perczyk.

Clarín spoke with Cirac, who among his awards has won the Prince of Asturias Awards for Scientific and Technical Research and the Wolf for Physics.

- Today there are many versions regarding quantum computing. Concretely, how are we doing now in terms of its development?

- Today we have prototypes, which show that the principles work well. They even do some calculation that cannot be done with usual computers. It's a very specific and academic calculation.

- Does the prototype use subatomic particles?

- Yes, also superconducting particles. It's a quantum computer, but it's still very tiny and buggy. It doesn't work exactly as we would like, because the technology is not yet as developed. But it already shows the power it has.

Between 10 and 20 years

- How long will it take to be ready and what will it be able to do?

- Time oscillates, depending on who you ask. For me, on the order of 10 to 20 years. Once we have it, it will serve for several applications that we know, but there will also be many that we do not yet know. Because we couldn't try them yet. Of the ones we know, it will solve particle physics problems: What are they made of? How do they work? Why does an object weigh what it weighs and not something else? And other applications related to the development of materials. Many of them, very difficult to develop and simulate with normal computers. We also know that there are applications that could be done with calculations in the field of optimization. And maybe in that of artificial intelligence.

"We are warning that it is a good time to start thinking about how to regulate quantum computing," says Ignacio Cirac, a physicist specializing in quantum computing.

- What are you thinking about artificial intelligence?

- The training will be faster, less data will be needed to carry out an apprenticeship. And quantum neural networks with more expressiveness could be developed, rather than ChatGPT. There is evidence that this may be the case.

- Are quantum computers going to have the same shape as the current ones?

- In 10 years they will still be more like today's supercomputers, those that predict the weather or are used for the development of materials.

- Will there ever come a time when we can have it on the PC or on the cell phone?

-Yes. If you asked the president of IBM 80 years ago if he thought computers could one day be in the house, he said absolutely not. That I did not think that there were more than 5 or 6 people who could have interest in everyone. See how this is now. Maybe something similar happens: that today we do not see the utility, but that when we have them we begin to develop utilities that we need at home. But that's still speculating.

In the microscopic world

- How do you explain that in a computer there is zero and one at the same time? Or that an object is in one place and not at the same time?

- It is out of intuition because we are not used to seeing it. We're not in that microscopic world where these things happen. So we have to make some analogies that are a bit fictitious. And one way to think about it is that in this microscopic world there are like parallel universes. There the life of a particle, an object, an atom, unfolds and is in one universe in one place, and in another universe in another. As we see in science fiction movies, that there are people who are in parallel universes, we call this superpositions. The object is doing two things at once because it is in the two universes that are persisting. And the universes begin to do things with each other. In quantum computing, from the outside we relate the universes to exploit them.

Spanish physicist Ignacio Cirac, specialized in quantum computing, during the interview.

- How many parallel universes can there be?

- If we have a particle -which we call a quantum bit-, there are 2. If we have 2, there are 4 and 3 are 8. With 4, 16. It is exponential, that is, if we have 300 then we will have 1 with 80 zeros. Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of universes. We can be in parallel doing calculations, with all these little parallel universes. This is an analogy, it's not exactly what's going on. But it is a way of understanding. In quantum computing, we seek to create universes and have them relate. And we get more power to do things we can't do in a universe alone.

- What is required to achieve this?


We need to work in extreme conditions, because those universes are very, very, very fragile. And as soon as there is something that disturbs them, they disappear. That is why we do not see them in our day. It has to be at a very low temperature, isolated, so that there are no molecules out there to interfere. That is why it will still take time, because it has to be done well.

- I have a hard time thinking how that can end up on a home computer, you have to superfreeze it and so on.

-

We have to connect it with our world. That is technologically difficult, but it has already been achieved with these prototypes and we are moving forward.

- What are you doing now at the Max Planck Institute?


- We work on what is called quantum hardware, with a specific technology. And we developed quantum software: algorithms to see what problems can be solved and how to use that hardware to solve them. We also do other research related to quantum technologies, but not to computing.

Argentines, with "high level"

- How do you see Argentine researchers in this area?

- The level is very high, both those who leave the University of Buenos Aires and the Balseiro Institute, or other universities such as Córdoba. I know and have had Argentine scientists working with me. I have Argentine colleagues, one very close who is Juan Pablo Paz. I was made doctor honoris causa by the UBA. It is another question whether they have the means to be able to develop research as in other countries. And they don't. That's why the Argentines either come here or go to the U.S. or other places, but still in Buenos Aires there is a group that is researching quantum computing, which is building some of the platforms, small prototypes, and pulling forward. With more difficulties than we have in other countries like Germany, but it is very remarkable what they are doing.

- If a young person thinks about studying this, what would you say to him?

- That would be a very good bet. If you like science and math and physics, combine a little bit of everything. Then it has even philosophical aspects, that is, it is something profound.

- Philosophical in what sense?

- Quantum physics tells us that the reality around us is not as we imagine it. It is defined as we observe it. There's a lot of philosophy behind that. It has technological aspects. And it seems that there is going to be a quantum revolution that is already incipient. And being prepared and participating in it is a great opportunity for young people. So I, if I were a young researcher, is one of the most serious options I would take.

Risks, too

- And are there any risks that you think you may have with quantum computing?

- They are indirect. A computer 1,000,000,000 times faster than the usual ones could have risks because maybe it can be used to develop drugs, but also materials that can attack the population. So, like any technological field, it has its risks and for that I believe that scientists and entrepreneurs and all the people behind it believe that society and politics have to develop ethical standards and regulate it in such a way that it has a good for humanity.

- And are you thinking about regulation?

- I do not know if we are up to date, because it is something incipient and we already know that we are usually very late in these regulations. We are warning that, since there are about 10 years left, it is a good time to start thinking about that.

- You hear about a geopolitical issue around this issue. There is talk of China very interested and more advanced, is that so? What is China's interest and what is the danger?

- China 5 years ago was far behind the Europeans and the Americans. But it has caught up and even surpassed the Europeans and especially the Americans. The interest they may have is that these quantum computers have a lot of power and some applications that are closely linked to the pharmaceutical or technological industry, and it is expected to have many more. Once a power has this technology, it can develop products, patents, something that can be sold elsewhere or used in any other way. It is evident that this is what attracts them.

- Do you have contact with Chinese researchers?

- Yes, yes, very narrow. Because we are still in a fairly basic phase in which when we have results we publish them and go to conferences. See you there, we discuss the results. Sure, we have contact with the investigators, but they have their local terminal, and that's another story. At the moment research is still very open, except for some industrial uses.

Valencia, Special Envoy


See also

Diego Fernández Slezak: "Artificial intelligence now takes the job out of managers, and that's scary"

See also

He is a physicist at Balseiro, created a learning algorithm and now trains thousands of young people in programming


Source: clarin

All life articles on 2023-05-09

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-27T09:15:56.936Z
News/Politics 2024-03-14T09:38:42.773Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.