Quantum Untangled: A quantum hackathon to save the world
A French startup is gambling on quantum’s potential to divine new, sustainable practices across a range of sectors.
Blaise Pascal is remembered as a betting man. The 17th-century French philosopher’s eponymous wager – that it’s impossible to know whether or not a Supreme Being exists, but it’s wiser to gamble that one does exist than not – helped fuel centuries of theological debate. More recently, the wager has been repurposed by climate scientists and auxiliary billionaire businessmen. Even if, wrote Warren Buffett, “there is only a 1% chance the planet is heading toward a truly major disaster and delay means passing a point of no return, inaction now is foolhardy.”
It is almost impossible to know how Pascal would have greeted the idea of using quantum computers to help solve climate change, much less the notion that a competition designed to solicit ideas on how this might be achieved should be named after him. Comprised of more than 750 participants recruited across 25 countries, the “Blaise Pascal [re]Generative Quantum Challenge” organised by the appropriately-named French startup PASQAL aims to divine more sustainable practices across transport, sanitation and energy. The competition runs until the 15th November, with the winners set to receive a share of €50,000 in prize money.
More than 60 projects have been submitted so far, though the irony of using a highly energy-intensive computing platform to try and save the world from irreversible climate change is not lost on PASQAL’s CEO, Georges Raymond. “The digital solutions of today demand vast processing power, incurring high energy costs and increasing the very carbon emissions we aim to reduce,” said Raymond, in a statement. But the trade-off, he continued, is well worth it. Quantum machines, after all, promise computational power far in excess of anything to be found in their classical antecedents. Harnessing that power in the name of sustainability, then, would seem to be a trade well worth making.
For its part, PASQAL is abundantly familiar with the energy requirements required by your average quantum computer. That’s why, instead of developing superconducting machines with elaborate cooling mechanisms, a la IBM and Google, it has chosen instead to build a neutral atom quantum computer. By using highly focused lasers, dubbed “optical tweezers” by PASQAL, this machine is able to trap and manipulate atoms individually, transforming them into qubits instead of having to rely on superconducting materials. It’s an engineering solution so compelling that, in January, the French startup raised €100 million to scale its quantum operations.
Founded in 2019, the company says it will be able to demonstrate a "quantum business advantage" next year, pursuing applications in weather modelling, air traffic optimisation and space mission scheduling in addition to its main foci to date, automotive engineering and financial modelling. After the success of its seed round, Reymond was even bold enough to suggest that PASQAL could soon overtake powerful rivals like IBM in demonstrating how worthwhile quantum computing could be in solving highly complex problems. “Last year IBM released a 127-qubit processor, but, as far as we know, they haven’t demonstrated anything as of now with it,” he told Sifted. “On our side, a couple of months ago we implemented a real-life algorithm on a processor for a customer using 70 qubits… The difference is we know how to use them.”
There’s also a chance that PASQAL could make a real difference with its sustainability competition, with entrants submitting quantum-powered innovations in areas from sustainable transport and sanitation, to smart cities and biodiversity. All participants, too, will have the opportunity to run their formulae on the French startup’s neutral atom quantum computer, giving them the chance to fine-tune their proposals for practical deployment in the future – though, with the €50,000 prize money initially only being doled out in €1,000 chunks, it seems the competition appears to be as much about networking and testing out quantum hardware than saving the planet.
Not that this hackathon is a waste of time. Far from it. Until the average level of qubits capable of being harnessed rises in the next decade, the quantum sector’s main currency will remain its pure, unadulterated potential – and if that’s directed toward making the world more sustainable, even if the results are not guaranteed, so much the better. And Pascal would agree. “I cannot judge of my work while doing it,” he wrote in his Pensées. “I must do as the artists, stand at a distance, but not too far. How far, then? Guess.”
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