"The country risks failing to convert its leadership in quantum research. In a report calling for a national strategy for quantum computing, Blair and William Hague, a former Conservative party leader, compared the situation to the recent history of artificial intelligence, where the UK was responsible for important research breakthroughs but then ceded power to other countries, including the US, leading to a scramble to build sovereign AI capacity."
"Quantum computing differs from classical computing in strange and mind-bending ways. In a standard computer, information is represented through transistors being on or off: ones or zeros. In quantum mechanics, things can be in multiple places at the same time. A transistor can be on and off at the same time, in a phenomenon known as quantum superposition. The effect is to create such a massive increase in computing power."
The UK has strong quantum research and the second-highest number of quantum startups globally, but lacks the high-risk capital and large-scale infrastructure to scale those startups. Research breakthroughs alone do not deliver economic or strategic benefits without the infrastructure and capital for commercial scale. Quantum computing leverages superposition to enable vastly greater computational power, potentially transforming molecular simulation, drug design, materials discovery and climate modelling. The technology is not yet widely practical, but the potential is significant. Urgent coordinated investment, sovereign capability and policies to attract scale-up funding are required to convert research leadership into national advantage.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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