Quantum Computing Scientists Call for Ethical Guidelines

The purpose of the video, which features a former quantum leader of Alphabet Inc. of

Google will initiate conversations with other leaders in the quantum computing industry about the ethical implications of the technology.

“Whenever we have new computing power, there is potential for the benefit of humanity, [but] you can imagine ways that would hurt people as well, ”said John Martinis, professor of physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara and former chief quantum material scientist at Google.

While quantum computers are still in their early stages, it’s important to start discussing the potential pros and cons of the technology and find a way to balance the two, he said. “You want to think about the future,” he says.

Dr Martinis and others like Ilana Wisby, CEO of quantum computing company Oxford Quantum Circuits, and Nick Farina, founder and CEO of quantum computing hardware company EeroQ Corp., are also featured in the short video.

Quantum computers have the potential to dramatically speed up drug and material discovery as well as complex financial calculations. Companies such as Visa Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., Roche Holding AG

and Volkswagen AG

are all experimenting with quantum technology at an early stage.

By harnessing quantum physics, quantum computers have the potential to sort through a large number of possibilities in near real time and find a probable solution. While traditional computers store information as zeros or ones, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which represent and store information as zeros and ones simultaneously.

A commercial-grade quantum computer has yet to be built, but startups and tech giants including Google, Microsoft Corp.

and international office machines Corp.

are in the race to commercialize the technology.

“It’s the equivalent of a whole new industrial revolution,” said Llyas Khan, founder and CEO of Cambridge Quantum Computing, which develops cybersecurity products, software and algorithms that businesses can use when they are are experimenting on early stage quantum computers. This power, in the wrong hands, could also be used to create harmful materials or to manipulate the human genome in harmful ways, he said. “We should be having these conversations today,” said Khan, who was also in the video.

Although it will likely take years to develop ethical guidelines for quantum computers, Mr Khan said he is starting to speak with UK government officials about these ethical issues now. There may have been some ethical checks on technologies such as social media and data privacy if ethics conversations had taken place in the mid-1990s, he said. “We were sleeping behind the wheel,” Khan said.

Experts are already preparing for some of the potential challenges of quantum computing. For example, financial services companies are bracing for a time when a powerful quantum computer could break some of the most popular cryptographic methods currently used in cybersecurity. Hundreds of the world’s top cryptographers are involved in a competition to develop new encryption standards for the United States that would protect against both classical and quantum cyber attacks.

Matt Swayne, editor of Quantum Daily who co-produced the short video with editor and co-founder Evan Kubes, said he wanted to create an expert advisory group to discuss the topic of quantum ethics. Video is the first step, he says. “We want to raise concerns, but we don’t want to spread fear,” he said.

Write to Sara Castellanos at [email protected]