Welcome to another captivating episode of Impact Quantum!

In today's exploration, our hosts, Frank La Vigne and Candice Gilhooly, dive deep into the ever-evolving world of quantum computing. From NVIDIA's GTC commentary and Bill Gates' views on quantum timelines to JPMorgan Chase's breakthrough in truly random randomness, there's plenty to unpack.

As they navigate the buzz of photonic qubits, hybrid architectures, and the rise of quantum tech hubs, Frank and Candice lend their wit and wisdom to help demystify the quantum realm. Whether you're quantum curious or a seasoned physicist, this episode promises a healthy splash of sarcasm, caffeine-driven insights, and a glimpse into the potential of the quantum future.

So, grab your favorite elixir and join us as we embark on another quantum-powered journey with Impact Quantum. Stay curious, caffeinated, and don't be the one still stuck in classical computing!

Timestamps

00:00 "Quantum Unraveled: Trends & Gossip"

04:55 Quantum Computing Debate Impacts Market

08:52 Quantum Computing's Rapid Advancements

11:21 Microsoft's Quantum Pushback

16:34 Quantum Computing: A Future Market Opportunity

17:14 Embrace Quantum Computing Knowledge Now

22:49 Title: "Canada's Quantum Conference Surge"

25:16 Cost-Cutting Controversy at Microsoft

29:04 Predicting Tech Trends Through Experience

32:14 IBM's Pre-Assembled Computer Success

33:47 Quantum Computing's Long-Term Importance

37:58 Columbia University Phone Experience

42:41 Casino Cheat via Pseudo-Random Exploit

44:11 Quantum Computing's Impact on Randomness

48:45 Remote Work Challenges Pre-Pandemic

51:36 "Waterloo: Canada's MIT Equivalent"

55:52 "Quantum Future: Stay Curious"

Welcome to another episode of Impact Quantum, where curiosity

is currency and caffeine is code. I'm your MC

Bailey, the semi sentient British AI lady here to guide you

through the shimmering labyrinth of quantum computing with a

healthy splash of sarcasm, of course. In this

episode, Frank LaVine and Candice Gilhooly

go full quantum Sherlock, unpacking everything from

NVIDIA's GTC Mea Culpa to JPMorgan Chase's foray

into truly random randomness. We've got

photonic dreams, hybrid whispers, and yes

rumblings from Montreal where you can't swing a qubit without hitting a

physicist. All that plus a sneak peek into upcoming

tech hubs, quantum conferences. And brace yourselves a

moment of tea spilling gossip from the hallowed halls of Redmond.

So grab your preferred elixir, plug in your brain, and let's get

quantum curious. But first, have some

dubstep.

Alright. So hello, and welcome back to Impact Quantum, the podcast where

we explore the emerging field of quantum computing and

focused on those who were curious about

quantum computers and the quantum curious. That's kinda how we we really need to work

on that, Candace. Speaking of Candace I know.

With me is the most, quantum curious person I know,

Candace Ghahouli. So we both been

traveling. And thank goodness for

automation and timing of posts and things like that because that's definitely made

things much, much easier. Oh,

absolutely. I pre I pre I I I scheduled my YouTube.

I scheduled LinkedIn and absolutely.

And I really couldn't I really couldn't spend that much

time, you know, like, just kinda sitting there pontificating,

you know, on what is my thought about the latest in

Quantum. So exactly. So and you were busy too.

Right? Yep. Yep. I was in Raleigh, North Carolina,

at Red Hat headquarters, kinda doing some planning

and whatnot, for our product

and and what what's gonna be coming down

the pike a bit and kinda what the priorities are generally.

But I have to say it's it's it's been an interesting week in Quantum

because I think the the number one

the number one thing I kinda noticed was Jensen Huang last week at

GTC. Kinda walked back a lot of his,

CES comments, which kinda disparaged quantum computing.

So it's been it's been an active year in quantum computing.

Right? Because it's kinda it's one of those technology things where it kinda goes and

fits and starts. It starts and then it kind of

becomes like, oh my god. We're we're on the verge of a breakthrough, and then

it kinda, like, fizzles out. But I think this time, I think the fire is

gonna catch. What do you think? I you know what? I agree with

you. At first, it was, you know, lots of announcements. I mean,

the we've only been around for, like, you know, this season has been for

the for the first three months of the year, basically. Right? Not

even not even the whole time. So, you know, every day, there were

these announcements. People were breaking through innovating with certain

technology. It was coming out of Germany, then it was coming out of,

China, it was coming out of The U The US. Boom, boom, boom, boom. All

the major, you know, all the major players were telling you something was going

on. And then there was this

kind of backlash if you I don't think you

say backlash, but, you know, a little a little bit

of bitterness was coming out, let's say, from, you know,

academia because they really are about, you

know, the science and the data and the accuracy.

And and then that kinda caused, like, attention, a little

bit. Yeah. Because it's been an interesting year. And, I mean,

what's you you don't have, you know, in our modern society, you don't have progress

without controversy. Right? So probably the first thing and I guess

the the the setup for this year was Willow in,

at Google, made their announcement where they achieved the

milestone. And then and see yeah. That was, like,

December. And then in January, first week of January, Jensen

Wong had kinda said, kinda trash talked for

lack of a better term. I'm summarizing because I drove quite a bit yesterday.

But it was always it's like it was nice to to I got in kinda

late. So I'm I'm I'm relying a little bit more on the energy

drinks than I should today. But You're doing

fine. You're doing fine. I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. So,

Jensen Wong kinda, like, trash talked, for lack of better term,

you know, or or really kind of was very pessimistic about

the timeline for a functioning quantum computer. And

then that kind of tanked a lot of quantum stocks early in the year.

And then a week goes by, maybe two weeks, Bill Gates

says, hey, Jensen. I respect you, but I think you're wrong on this one.

And then there were a number of other announcements that you're talking about from Germany,

China, The UK, etcetera, etcetera. And

then there

was GTC last week, which is

NVIDIA's big conference. We're recording this on March.

And, basically, the gist of it was,

Jensen kind of apologized and said he was wrong about to say what

he said and kind of walked back a lot of

his more critical comments. And there was a lot of

news about Quantum at GTC last week, and I know

you did some kind of reading up on it. Right.

You know, I was actually I was just going back for a minute and thinking

about, you know, the timeline and how we were

talking about, you know, we've spoken about Condor,

and we're talking about Cloudfare. And that

got us into really a lot of, like, cryptography conversations.

Then Google came out because they wanted to really handle the error correction

issue. Mhmm. And then we had D Wave.

And it is really exciting. And then there was, Psy Quantum

who was really delving deep into photonic quantum.

And then, you know, it just kinda keeps going forward, and then

China makes an an announcement, and then just this year alone, you're right.

Everything that's been coming out and increased funding. So I do

think the fire has caught Yeah. A %.

I've been through a couple of these waves now. Because I really

got into this in 2018, '20 '19.

And I've seen a couple of fires catch on, but I think this

time it's starting to last. You know? Mhmm.

Like, if you ever tried to start a charcoal grill, like, doesn't always catch the

first time. But each subsequent time, because the

charcoals are hotter and seems to be a little easier, and I

think we're starting to see that now. Will this be the time it catches for

real? I think it's too soon to say. But I

think that this is just an I mean, I don't know. Like, there's

a lot going on and, like, there's a lot of because you

know? And and this is a good episode to kinda catch up because we had

a couple of episodes with guests. We had, the guys from

Quantum Knight. We had,

Jordy, on and Jordy Rose.

He's he's he's running now. He's running. He's running across Canada.

Yeah. Yeah. He is running as as we speak. Right? He it'd be cool if

you had he said he's gonna have a website and blog. It'd It'd be cool

if there was, like, a I think he'd kinda track his progress. Yeah. No.

I'd like that. You know? And and and that's right. And then today,

we spoke with, Simon Muscat. Yep.

That show would be out a week after this one. That

was a fantastic show. I I I

really, really enjoyed it. He really opened up

my my mind to the idea of,

photonics. Right. And, you know, and

because that's something that, you know, they're really they're really

interested in kind of stamping, out there. And

so, you know, that was truly fantastic. I just

I feel like every time I learn one

thing, it exposes 10 more things that I

don't know. Yeah. We were we were talking about that today. You know? Like,

you know, first you learned about what qubits are, then you learned about, you know,

the different types of qubits. And then it's like, well, now there's also

virtual qubits. And it's one of those things where if you don't come

in with a beginner's mindset and kind of excited about learning, it's not

the space for you. You know what I mean? Even, I think, in

general, IT is. Right? But

the the short of it is is there's just been constant innovation

here. Like, one of the press releases I saw

this week was JP Morgan Chase had announced

that they are using

quantum computers to a real to

advance a a real world use case of coming up with truly random

numbers. Right? Which is pretty interesting.

And as they come out and they come out successfully with that, they're

saying, look. Essentially, we are going to own,

the financial market,

in terms of best practices and everything. Right?

Right. Everything financial when it comes to quantum.

And that's crazy. I don't I, you know, I didn't

even I didn't even know about it. Now why would I know about it? But

now that I do know about it, I'm like, okay. Like, what does

that really mean? And you know me. I'm very

much of the idea that I want everyone to collaborate.

Right? And that I could understand and see how

certain sectors based upon the cube it's

needed. And the data

the amount of data that they have, you know, which is

super important, is going to determine the

kind of quantum mechanics that they're going to be using

to create their systems. Absolutely. Yeah.

So I I I didn't really know, you

know, it it really it really kind of blew my mind. And I don't know

why that should blow my mind when, you know you know you know, Google comes

out with one thing and Microsoft comes out with another and,

you know, and then basically you have Nvidia who's kind of leading

the way. And, you know, it because they're

really, really good communicators. Right.

And that's essential in any of these. In any of these

Well, and there's also getting back to what you said earlier was

there's a lot of pushback on Microsoft before their announcement of the mayor on a

chip. Mhmm. Right? Because there's a lot of people in

academia saying, like, well, you really didn't do anything. You didn't really

prove anything new. And I would

be a fool to say I

understood all the research things that came out of it. Right?

But, you know, I'm it's it's interesting is that I think you're gonna

see, to your point, academia

is going to have one perspective. And we

are in the middle of the commercialization

of what has largely been an academic subject,

quantum physics. Right? It's largely been

the sole domain of academics,

government researchers, that sort of thing. Right? So but now we're starting to

see, you know, startups in this space. Right? So

you're gonna have a little bit of brasher, more, you

know, brash marketers that may or may not

wanna stretch the truth

about their capabilities, and that's not unique in the IT industry. Come on.

Let's be real. And and one would even say Microsoft

has a it's not the first time Microsoft may

have, you know, stretched the truth a little

bit, or rephrase or shine a

different type of light on the truth. And I'm not knocking knocking with

Microsoft. I mean, I'm talking about, like, you know No. No. No.

I know. I understand. And and, you know, they were really excited about

talking about what, you know, they were doing, and it

was really exciting what they were doing. And they

never said this is, like, the be

all end all answer of everything. You know? That's true. Like, we're trying to

press with the press release, the first paragraph was, like, we had this major breakthrough,

which is true. Exactly. You never admitted to it. You just have to read the

whole thing to get the whole truth, like the first paragraph. And and to in

fairness, they've been working on this, like, twenty years,

right, in in one form or the other. And they they they had a

breakthrough, and I think they wanted to share it with the world.

Exactly. And, you know, and and that is exciting,

and that's needed because it gets people talking. What the

heck is quantum mechanics? What is Right. You know, what is

quantum computing? What does it mean? And what does it mean

to me, and what is it going to mean to my

kids? And if you don't have kids, then you're thinking

about what is it gonna mean to the overall society if

it's coming and it is it is the next step.

Right? Exactly. And I think that there's a a definite,

yeah, there's a definite, I think, approach for if you're

a CTO or a CIO. And

clearly, if, you know, JPMorgan Chase finance financial, they're in a

different kind of world. But if you're just a generic company well, that sounds

terrible. But if you're just kind of like a company that is not

in a space where quantum computing advancements are an obvious

opportunity slash threat to your business, this is something that I think should

be on your radar. Is it gonna be on the on the front burner?

Probably not. But it has to be in the back burner. It has to be

in the back of your mind. Right? I think it's important if you are in

that role or aspire to be in that role. You

should be kind of I mean, right now, I do think that quantum computing is

still a little bit away.

Right? I don't think it's going to be, you know,

decades. I don't think it's gonna happen tomorrow. But sometime between now

and, you know, a decade from now, it's going to have a major

impact on every business. Right? Little bit of

a spoiler. Yeah. I mean but

right. But but also remember, it's not going to be the

answer for everybody. Right. And it

doesn't it doesn't have to be. And there are

things that, you know, quantum computing

is going to be able to do, like create an

encryption for a system that is

analog so that they can use that

because they're a small business. Mhmm. And they have

a small amount of data relatively. You know?

And they are going to you know, they're not gonna have to

go all quantum or hybrid, let's

say, because it's just not needed. Like, not everything is for

everyone, even though sometimes they make, you know,

bikinis in, you know, all kinds of sizes.

You know? Or they make certain kinds of pants in all kinds of

sizes. It doesn't mean Doesn't mean it's appropriate for everyone. Doesn't mean

doesn't mean they're really what works. You know? Sorry. You know?

Life is life is a little tough. That's a good way to put

it. I mean but I think people should be aware of quantum computing. And I

also think that, you know, someone like you who's a marketer,

you're an experienced marketer. If you

you're getting in on this now because at

some point, there's gonna be a real market for

people to market their quantum hardware, their quantum

code, their quantum like, there's gonna be an entire ecosystem build

out. And, you know, you think about, like, let's use pick a hardware

company like Dell. Right? I mean, if Dell was famously started by Michael Dell in

his dorm room and stuff like that. But in order to scale, he needed to

hire marketers. He needed to hire accountants. Like, so

and I think an appreciation or understanding for this type of hardware

is gonna require or if this becomes an industry, when this becomes an industry,

I think people are gonna need to have

expertise in these spaces. And the best time to get

experience is now. Like, we live in an in an age where we're just surrounded

by information all the time. And maybe instead of scrolling through TikTok

videos, you know, hit up a YouTube video. Like, how do quote cubits work?

What do they what types of problems can they solve? Why why are

they more effective at certain types of situations,

in compute than others? Right? Like, it's it's just just to get a just a

basic conversational kinda, you know, more depth than your average

cocktail conversation, but less depth than, say, you know, a a a

lead coder interview at, like, a big tech company.

You know, I I agree. And and I'm gonna jump back to

something that we previously were talking about,

at GTC twenty twenty five that

just happened. So they had a day of

quantum. Right. And they decided

that they are going to continue to do that. And,

you know, I just did a little search. And so I

see there is quantum days twenty twenty five in February

in Toronto, Canada. 20 20 6 or

2025? Oh, I'm sorry. Oops. We

already missed that. Okay. But we'll have to fix that

one. But maybe future Candace has developed a time machine and can

They can do that. But but for example, you know, there is Quantum

Tech coming out April in Washington

DC. Right. Not that far from me. So I'm gonna see if I can,

score a media pass there. Right. And then, you

know, and then, you know, where is that? Oh, that's a little that's Albuquerque,

New Mexico. But I, triple e, is doing a whole quantum week.

Right. So the fact that these are happening Mhmm. Tells

you that the writing's on the wall. This is going

to happen, and there's been a lot of,

you know, money put at this, a lot of attention

put at this. And this isn't a like, an overnight Johnny come lately type

of technology. People have been talking about this. I mean, your dad worked

on, quantum research at IBM,

a number of years ago. And, you know, now

we're looking at you know, we're, like, thirty,

forty years into this, the idea of this and and the research

that goes into it. And I think at some point, you know, the the fruit

the the quantum tree is gonna bear fruit, and we're gonna see this

ecosystem explode overnight. And Oh,

absolutely. Because because there's so much that's

involved, and there's so many different people coming at

it from so many different angles

Absolutely. That's being sliced up sliced up in a in

a really beautiful way to me because, you know, I'm

all about collaboration Mhmm. Which is a very a very

Canadian thing. But, you know, but the

idea that, you know, that these companies can come together,

and they can decide, look, like, that's gonna be, you know, the that's gonna

be the photonics cubits. Right? You know? Right.

And this is gonna be the ion cubits. And, you know,

for the different needs that we have. Because,

again, it's about who has the

most data that they need to manage,

and they need to protect

with encryption Right. For

data security. And Absolutely. That's

Well, then, I mean, I think the first split you're gonna see, honestly,

in the quantum industry is you're gonna have people who are in the

security space, the encryption space, like folks like Quantum Knight.

Mhmm. Mhmm. And I would wager very heavily,

and, you know, future Frank to come back on the show and say, was

I right or not, Is that the Quantum Day in DC is gonna be heavily

focused on national security encryption type issues. Alright.

Maybe less on the, you know, let's save the planet and, you

know, discover new drugs and stuff like that. Although I

could be wrong. Because if you look at kind of like what the

potential is for, national security and

quantum computing, what's at risk is very, very

high risk. And I think that, you know, having worked at big tech

companies where we did organize events in DC, the agenda was a

little different in DC as it was to, like, everywhere else. You know what I

mean? Right. Right. And if even at the Microsoft

Technology Centers, right, like, you know, we we would tailor them to whatever industry

is popular in town. Right? So the Minnesota one was very

health care focused. The DC One was very public sector focused.

Detroit was very manufacturing focused. I mean, so, you know, it it

it's smart. It's well, I don't look who I'm talking to. I may tell

you. Like, you can't first of all, marketing is know who you're marketing to.

Right? Absolutely. And but and

that's the point of the show is to Right.

You know, service the the

minds that are the physicists and

the academia so they're excited about what we're talking

about. Mhmm. And as well, break it

down and explain it, to nontechnical

people because it's really fascinating.

I mean, it blows my mind all the time. Like, I just ran a

search on 2026, and I see there is

something, like, already four announcements of

of, of conferences in Canada alone between

Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa. Right. And that

is incredibly exciting to me. You know, that's also

shows me that, you know, you know, Canada being involved in

what's going on, it's vitally important. You know, they're one of the

top 10 countries of information is coming out of

right now, about what's going on

with quantum quantum mechanics, you know, it's and and

that's that's just, again, like I said, coming at it from all these different

angles is is just absolutely brilliant

because it's it's the best minds, and, I love it.

And, yes, my father, may may

he be in peace, he was working on quantum

physics in the seventies. Right.

So like way, way, I mean, really in the game a long time. Right?

And I'm I'm sure there were people at IBM kind of

scratching their, you know, their heads. Like, why are we dealing with quantum

physics? Right? Like, so like clearly, like, you know, if

it was really if we think it's cutting edge now, I would imagine in the

seventies, this would have been sci fi slash cutting edge

stuff. Right. Exactly. Like And big props to

companies like that who, you know, they Supported it.

You know? Supported it. Right? So there was I'll I'll spill a

little bit of tea, and I won't name names.

So when Microsoft did their announcement, and they've been working on

the, you know, topological qubits for a while.

And one former Microsoft executive who most people wouldn't

know the name so this isn't bomber. This isn't Gates. This isn't,

such an Adela.

Basically had on LinkedIn, and I'm connected to this individual on

LinkedIn, had basically commented or

reshared the post. Like, congratulations, researchers. I know you've been working at

this for twenty years. And he was in a very high position

twenty years ago. And this guy was known for cutting costs.

All the Microsoft employees know exactly what I'm talking about.

But, you know, he, you know, made this wrote this long flowing

comment slash post on congratulating on this, and he knows that they've been working about

so long. But I would

put real money on the fact he was probably pressuring them

to stop wasting their time and money. I don't know that for a fact,

but that's just something he would do. So for him to kinda congratulate

them. I'm sure somebody who's who's been in there long enough are

kinda, like, grumbling under their breath. Like, you tried to cut

I you know? I don't know. So that's it. I'll I'll I'll

stop spilling tea now. Okay. Good. That

was fun. There you go. Oh, I'm sorry. No. But it's just funny, you know,

like, I mean, it's it's it's a long play. Right?

It well, in the nineteen seventies, it definitely was a long play.

Right? In the early two thousands, it definitely was a long play. I think the

question is now in 2025, is quantum computing still a

long play? I think it is, but

not that long. Okay. I agree. Like, I think that, you know,

obviously, the the the tale of it is, you know,

the future. Right. But with all honesty

with these, remember we had a conversation, and

and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna release the name because we're gonna tape the

show, I think, next week with someone who had,

an API that they were already giving

out, to to a network of people

Mhmm. That was involved with a hybrid

system. Yes. Remember? I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And so, you know, we're we're not gonna

release that, but we're gonna be taping that show next week, which I'm super excited

about. So stay tuned. And if you're not already subscribed, be sure to like, share,

and subscribe. Alright? I love it. I love it. And you're and I'm the

marketer, and look what you do. I love it. So I've learned from you, though.

Oh, you're so sweet. But no. Really. Like and she the stuff that she was

talking about to me was, like, again,

next level because I didn't realize how

close it is in certain ways. It's just it's

it's closer and closer and closer. And that's why I think

that legitimately, like, in the next,

you know, two I dare say two

to three years. I'm not even gonna say two to five years. I'm gonna say

the next two to three years. There's going to be,

hybrid solutions that are

going to be able to be applied. Absolutely.

You know, and and not just and not just obviously in the same

industry. It's gonna be different industries because they have

to stay specific. Right, and go

after, you know, their goal. And then once they solve, you know,

they solve the error correction and and figure out how many qubits

it can deal with. And once they solve, you know, the

scalability, then there's

gonna be these use cases that are just going to explain it

to everybody. Exactly. Suddenly, it's gonna become far more practical.

Mhmm. Once error correction I think error correction and scalability are kinda

are they're not the same, but I think they're related.

But once error correction gets cracked,

once that problem gets solved, I think the floodgates were really gonna open. I

think that's gonna be the Netflix the Netscape, IPO moment.

Know, if you're old enough to remember, like, the .com boom, what really kicked it

off was Netscape IPO'd and just was just phenomenal and blew

everything away. And that was in August 1995.

And, you know, the .com boom shortly thereafter

followed. I think that

error correction is probably gonna be more akin to that moment.

But, you know, again, like, I have

a history of being ahead of ahead of the times. Right? Like, I was a

tablet PC MVP because I really felt that the tablet CC platform

was ready for mainstream as as time would turn out. Turns out the

iPad was the better bet. Right?

And, you know, so I kinda, like, temper my predictions based on that. But when

I was, well, actually, when I was at Microsoft during my when I interviewed for

the job at the MTC, I had basically was talking

about quantum computing. So I think I just come back from the Microsoft research

thing that I was exposed to it really for the first time.

And I I basically said mark my words. Within

one year, quantum computing will come up in customer conversations.

And, you know, as we got to eleven, ten months,

started getting nervous.

There was some money on the line and definitely a lot of pride.

But sure sure enough, eleven months and a week,

two customers back to back, unrelated, and basically

hit hit up hit up our empty seat app to have a quantum

conversation. Isn't that interesting? So it's

like it it'll but I think you're right. I think the time

frame is a lot closer to three years than five.

And I think there's also too, like, the the notion of what is a practical

quantum computer mean. Right? And this was we kinda we didn't answer the questions.

Sorry. Spoiler alert in our conversation that we have next week. But we need to

kind of broach the subject. Right? So when we had this term, and I think

AWS I've heard of AWS, not so much when I was at Microsoft.

Maybe it's a new phrase. Is the whole notion

of what's the day two operations look like. Right? Mhmm. You

can build something. You can engineer something. You can deploy it. Day

two is really when things start breaking.

Oh, shit. It's bugs are coming out. It it it will need maintenance. It's like

you get a new car. Right? You get a new car. It's wonderful. Everything's great.

And then it's gonna need an oil change. Obviously, not hopefully, not on

day two. It's gonna need new tires. The tires are gonna be rotated.

Like, that's sort of maintenance cycle. Right? Or what really keeps

keeps the lights on. What's that gonna look like

for a quantum computer? Right? Or how is the

quantum computer gonna fit into the data center? Right? You

know, what are the people that have to, you know,

rack it up and power it in? You know, plug it in. Right? What's

their experience gonna be like? What's it gonna look what's that gonna look like?

And I don't think we really know just yet. Right? And I think one of

the things go you know, tying back to IBM, right, is what made

IBM IBM was

the fact that people were building computers in

research labs usually related to World War two,

decryption efforts. Right? They're

building them in research labs usually in secret. Right? Custom builds.

I think what made IBM successful in that business, they basically made the

business where they sold they sold the thing already

built and you just basically wheel it in and plug

it in. Right? And this is back when computers were the size of,

you know, would fit in would require massive

forklifts and stuff like that to put in. But they did build the box that

you could just shove into your, basement somewhere,

right, and plug it in. Right? Before that,

it was really a hobbyist type of market where you would just, you know,

kind of assemble the bits themselves. Same thing with the personal computer in a very

real sense. Right? The Altair was, you know, you couldn't really

buy one, as I understand it. This is before my time, and my family

was too broke to afford a computer like that then. Right?

You know, you couldn't buy it in a box. You got it as a kit,

and you assembled it or you cobbled the parts together. It

really wasn't until something like the IBM PC came out where it

was this box. In this case, you could lift it up,

and you plugged it in. Right? It was so so as I understand it,

there's not really a lot of companies now where I can call up and say

I need a quantum computer delivered, and I plug it in and then send it

into my house. Right? Exactly. Now we're in the era of the cloud.

Right? So theoretically, I could do that with with Amazon

and and and, Azure and Google and stuff like that, theoretically.

But, again, like It's not made for the every man.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like For every woman must be Or excuse me.

I'm sorry. Every person. And

it's not right now. And and the needs of the every

person do not even,

like, hold the same type of gravity

as as a larger company that's dealing with,

you know, people's personal information

and any and, you know, their address and or

where all their money is or, you know, and all this inform you

know, information about them they know about, you know, all all

the medicines they take, for exam you know, those are

the type of of reasons why we

need the quantum mechanics. But, yeah, it's

gonna take a very long time. And you know my history is

my dad at IBM, like, carried

home a a computer they just weren't using

anymore. And for the first time ever, I mean, I saw

what a I saw what a computer was in 1984.

And it was, you know, it was the most fantastic thing I'd, like,

ever seen. It was like magic in a box. You know? And

I remember playing, we played decathlon.

Nice. Bruce, that was a pretty interesting thing to get that one. Yeah. I remember

that. When I would play Bruce Jenner. Right? And and and you you

would run by hitting two keys right next to each other as fast as you

can. But, yeah, like, look at how compute I

mean, how much has advanced since then? And then all of a sudden, you know,

you got Max, and then how are they interacting with I with,

you know, with the PCs? And and is that

seamless? You know? How are these quantum hybrid

quantum computers, are they gonna be able to interact

with, successfully with, you know, you

know, analog computers so that we can, you

know, move forward and everyone can kind of get involved with it?

You know? Right. These are all the questions to ask. Right? It

it's it's going to be messy and fun.

Mhmm. Super exciting. Right?

And, you know, for really for dealing with real

problems. And, you know, I never

thought it's not my mindset to be all like security,

security. I'm not like that. Right? But

when I saw, when I saw, for example,

like, when my dad died, then

somebody, they tried to steal my mom's identity.

Right. Right? And, you know, that was a that

was a hot, hot mess to kind of untangle and stuff,

and that shouldn't be able to happen. So imagine the encrypt

we lay nice little nice little quantum encryption locks.

You know? I can kind of see the icon in my eyes right now.

Right. You know, the little And the little there's a really good, YouTube

video. It's not one on one we produce, but there's

a call just search for Quantum Apocalypse by the Y Files.

And it's a pretty good run through of

I think it's a little more alarmist and dramatic.

But that's kind of. I get it.

That's what makes people click, right, on on the video.

But it's basically like a preview of what it would look like once

a quantum computer is available that can crack

encryption. And, you know, I was talking to somebody not that long ago.

For all we know, somebody's already built one.

Correct. Right. And if you look at kind of the history of nation states

and security apparatuses

around the world, you know, there was a the most powerful

computers in the 40s were secret.

Mhmm. Right? And

wouldn't be a surprise if that were the case today. Right? We don't know. I

oh, I I a %. And I what I'll say to to to back that

up is I remember when,

I was, you know, I was at Columbia University,

and we had the most amazing telephone that was provided

to us by the university. So everybody was only on, like, a

secret extension that you could you could do all these things. You could leave a

message and not actually call somebody back. Oh, yeah.

Like, all that kind of just kinda great stuff. And I met I

met, this really nice guy, and he

took the phone, and he connected it into my computer.

Nice. And then I saw whatever was

on what they called, you know, the world wide web, you

know, back in '94.

And that was crazy sauce. And I remember, you

know, that I figured out at I figured out at Columbia that I had

an email address. No one knew what email was. I mean, this is

before AOL. Right? Yeah. This was And I was the nineties,

so it was a very different the first time I got on what we

would call the World Wide Web would have been 1993, and there was this text

only browser. And it was on a VT one

zero two terminal in,

in the university. Eventually, I got it working on my terminal emulator at

home, but you I mean, you basically

was just text. Right?

And it was a different era. I don't remember when I saw, like, it done

on with graphics. It was just

mind blowing. Like Yeah. Because mine couldn't handle

the graphic yet, but what I just wanted to finish to say is that I

then sent an email to my dad at IBM. Oh, that's

so cool. I sent an email to my dad and then my phone

rang. Nice. And then he's like, what are you

doing? And I'm like, was that you? Well, I'm like, yeah.

I sent you an email, dad. My email is for

IBM stuff and government and

military. Right? Like, that's what so he was

like, how did you how did you figure this out? And I'm like, blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, you know. That's funny.

You know, because he was an engineer, I you know, just to drive him crazy

and because of who I am, I used all my words.

But it was really exciting, and he you know, I just adventurous in that

type of way. You know what I mean? I can't do his side, but

that's why I am the curious. I am the tech curious,

and I smell a

change that is going to be really exciting, and

I wanna be able to understand it because nothing's gonna

replace me. I'm just gonna understand it so that it

can augment what I already do. Right.

Right? Right. No. Absolutely. I think I think it's an exciting

time to be in this. And if you're curious about it, just learn. We

live in probably, like, one of the

most an era a time when I can go to ChatChippity,

ask it to explain me something. I can go to YouTube. Right? I can even

ask ChatChippity, can you recommend a number of, YouTube videos or playlist

for me to to to watch to learn about this? And,

you know, I even built a custom GPT agent where I can kinda, like, give

it my background and what my understanding and knowledge is. It's like

you explained it to me in these terms. And, I mean, it it's very helpful

in learning stuff, and highly recommend everyone within the sound of

my voice to do that. And you know what? We also

always be learning, but you know what? We write about it almost every day.

Yep. And, and we're we're

gonna get we're gonna get more onto the actual quantum

impact impact quantum site.

But you know what? I like admittedly not the best. I know. I

know. We're working on it. We're working on it, and, you

know, I'm doing my proper nudging, and it's it's gonna it's gonna it's

gonna happen. But I really think it's important, you

know, every week when we talk, we should talk

about, what was exciting,

specifically this week that they that they made these announcements. Because

I really wanted I I so I went through a list,

to go through, and we we talked about the JPMorgan,

which is genuine randomness

in number generation. Mhmm. Do you

wanna speak to that for a moment? Yeah. So when you

and we did kinda talk about this before the previous one where somebody

managed to cheat at a casino by Right. Reverse

engineering how they were coming up with random numbers. So whenever you generate a random

number on a conventional computer, they're really what they call pseudo random

numbers because a computer isn't really good at generating random

numbers. So there's all sorts of games you can play with that to kind

of mimic randomness, whether that's time of day

or, you know, movement of mouse and but

at the end of the day, you really know what you're doing. You can

reverse engineer and produce random numbers that'll come up with

the same pattern. Right? So if you're doing anything in Python, if you say, like,

the random seed is this, that's basically what you're doing. And so you

can get reproducible results if you put in the same random seed. So

if I put in random seed one, two, three, four, and it gave me a

list of 10 random numbers, I can share that same code with you,

and it would almost all the time give you the same 10 random

numbers. Right? So which is a problem if you need

absolute randomness, like like, for a lottery. Right? Like,

you know, that's what they say. Everything's audited by particular,

you know, auditing firm. And they go through a great deal of

length to, you know, be fair and produce random

results, which is why, you know, whenever I see video

poker or anything video related in terms of gambling, I do not trust it

at all. Mhmm. Exactly. Right?

But, to that end though, if you have a quantum computer that

can take advantage of these quantum effects and quantum states,

you can get genuine true randomness and unpredictability,

which is gonna have, an impact in terms of

encryption. It's gonna have and security,

and all sorts of things. Plus, I think what they're not saying by by not

saying what they're saying by not saying it is that it's gonna give them a

significant advantage. Because if you can start producing random numbers, you can start

studying what true randomness is. And theoretically, a a

really clever, you know, quant could start

thinking how do you apply kind of

randomness to the stock market prices. Right? Like, the stock market

movements day to day are definitely random,

or are they? I don't know. Like but

it's a it's an interesting it's an

interesting use case, I'll say. And it's not, you know, it's not gonna

cure cancer, like, in and of itself. But I think that if you have a

company like JPMorgan Chase that is relying on some quantum

technology to do one thing, I think that's gonna start opening up the floodgates

because there's gonna be another investment bank. It's like, why are

they spending so much money on this? What clearly, they're clever and

they know what they're doing. So what what how else can we

leverage quantum computers? Right? So you're gonna start seeing it kinda leak in like that.

That's what I think. But one of the things that I thought was

interesting was you were telling me because right now, when you think

about the the big tech

industry, right, it's basically Silicon Valley,

Seattle, and kinda New York.

Right? And Right. Right. You know but I was very

encouraged because there's a couple of quantum hotspots in The US, and it

turns out that I live near one of them. Right? So

that's it's that's you're exactly right. So, they're making

these, quantum computing hubs, and

the emerging cities are Santa Barbara,

Chicago, Boston,

College Park, Maryland. Nice.

Right? And Boulder, Colorado. Nice.

And these cities host significant investments and

collaborations with major tech firms and universities.

And so that's kind of the the the fun combination is that they wanna

have the tech people and they wanna have the university driven

academia together. Which I think for the foreseeable future,

academia and tech here is going to be a,

combined. They're gonna have they're gonna be tied to the hip.

Absolutely. And you know what? It'll be a really good thing

because they're going to understand well, they understand the science of it

all. But, you know, even in other fields, having having, you

know, the sciences involved with how computer

systems run for, you know, things that involve with onboarding

and understanding how people think. Like, that stuff is that stuff is

brilliant. Really exciting. So, yeah, we have the

emergence of these quantum computing tech hubs, which is very exciting.

And in fact, I'm excited because I'm excited because

there's an emerging tech hub, and I won't have to relocate to

the West Coast. That's fantastic. And

it's near the IKEA. But

realistically, the the tech hub is because the University of Maryland is in College

Park. It's not because it's near an IKEA.

Right. No. Absolutely. Like, for example, there's a there's a like, it's

I know. It was good. It was good. I was going with it.

Yeah. Thank thank you. Thank you for preserving my ego on that one.

There you go. Oh, it's all good. It's all good. You're so smart.

No. Actually, they were I was we were talking to this physicist

who was in Montreal. And remember he was

saying, like gonna be on a future episode. Yeah. Like, you can't

throw a stick without hitting another physicist in

Montreal. Well, yeah. And there's a

No. I mean, Montreal is also I mean, one of the things that bothered me,

and I'm not gonna call out which big tech company I used to work for.

But if you're been paying attention or you're

looking up on LinkedIn, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You would doubt. The

there was one particular time I was trying to transfer internally

because my job was moving to the West Coast. And

I was trying to get a job where I would either be remote or or,

you know because I didn't for family reasons, I didn't wanna relocate.

And constantly, it was like, no. This person has

to be in, you know, near a city with a

space needle apparently. And I was like, why? Like, it doesn't

make any this is before the pandemic. It doesn't make any sense. Like, there was

one particular position I was up for where it was basically working with nonprofits.

And just a drive from my old house to

the office downtown DC,

I passed the headquarters for, like, three, like,

80% of the nonprofits you're supposed to be

working for. And the the other remaining 20% were either headquartered in

Boston or New York. So it's like,

why do I have to move out to that? And it was kinda like, well,

you know, innovation can only be done. Basically, I got a couple answers, but

finally, it was innovation can only be done

here on campus, which I thought was the funniest thing I

ever heard. Innovation is confined to a thing. So I'm glad to

see that there's some geographical diversity when it comes to

kinda quantum hubs within The United States. Right? So you mentioned, you

know, Colorado, California, Maryland. I'm glad I see

Maryland on the list. And,

you know, I would imagine also probably probably

Westchester County where, IBM has

their big facility. Yeah. That's true. They have their

big research facility there in Aramark. Right? So Right. And

there was a YouTuber. Maybe we can get her on the show. That'd be cool.

It's, Hannah Fry. She's a big, like,

TV science personality in The UK, and she's also a big YouTuber.

And she did a whole thing, presumably an arm

monk. Like Okay. Walking through this. That would be yeah. That would that

was where my dad worked. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, it'd be cool to

do that and, you know

but, I mean, it's just having everything in

one geography, I think, is also kind of

Oh. Encourages group think in the toward the creative works, I

think, doesn't help anyone. I don't

know. Does that make sense? Well, but to but to that

point, in terms of group think, I just came across this week that

NVIDIA establishes a quantum computing research center,

and they're doing it in Boston. And they're working

in Harvard and MIT. Right. Right. And that

makes sense. Right? Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. You know,

that's where they wanna be. It's like, you know, they call,

university they call well, it depends on who is actually making the statement.

But, essentially, the equivalent to

MIT here in Canada is University University

of Waterloo. Right. And there's a lot going

on at the University of Waterloo as well. They're just not

necessarily communicating, what they're doing

because they're not ready yet, or they're working on something that they don't wanna discuss

yet. Right? But like you were saying, there's a lot of places,

that are working on stuff, but haven't really talked about it

yet. Like, you know, like, you know Israel is one of

them. Like, you know, you know, from, you know and from I know

I remember we had a conversation with that guy that we still had to get

on for taping. He will be on there. Exciting. These these Well,

yeah. And it's just like, you know, it's one of those things

where I think

the pandemic taught people that you can collaborate

anywhere in the world. Mhmm. I think the

pandemic also taught that, you know, you don't have to be in

person all the time face to face to

collaborate. Right. And, you know, this is

a personal issue because my wife now has to go back to the office every

day, which has caused a lot of know, logistical

chaos and stuff like that. So maybe I'm maybe I'm on that soapbox for personal

reasons today. But No. I I

it's obvious no. It's honestly, I I spoke to I spoke to

somebody, and she said, I can't even talk to you about the breakfast schedule

now because she's like, I I can't. I

I can't. It's messed up, and she's got three kids. And she's a

professional, and her husband's a professional, and they have to get out the

door. Yep. And it's and it didn't have to

be that way before. Do you know what I mean? It was like, I can

focus on this, you know, get the kids out of my hair,

lovingly so. And then Any parent out there will understand

exactly what done. Right. Right. Right. Right. And just and then

just get good work done. So exactly. You know? So, you

know, it it's it's really, you know I mean, this

we've kinda really went way off topic. But, but, you know,

I mean, it it's just I don't know. Like, I'm

encouraged that that that more

people in more locations are getting in on the quantum game and not just

defaulting to Silicon Valley or the Pacific Northwest.

I'm encouraged by that. I am encouraged by that, and I'm

encouraged by, the diversity

of, professional roles Yes.

Of people who are interested and are

leaning into their curiosity. Yeah.

And, you know, you know, I have a I have a newsletter,

the Tech Whisperer, and, you know, we have, like, you

know, I don't know, 1,600 and change people that are

just actively interested in what's going on, and and the makeup

of those people is is tremendously interesting.

And our viewers, and we've been getting a lot more views on

YouTube. So we we suggest to please, you know, join

our mailing list, and we will keep you informed of

when new episodes release and new content releases that's about

quantum computing. So we can all learn together. Join our mailing

list, Candice. Well, we have you have to go to

impactquantum.com, and then it's super

Right. And there's a join us, and you simply give us your

email and you click, and you're golden.

And then we can use that list to let you know about, you know, what's

the next show or what's the next article that has been

released. You know, we're gonna we're gonna figure out our frequency.

But we'd love for you to join us. Excellent.

I can't think of a better way to end this episode. What do you

think? Well, I think that's great. Maybe you should have Bailey take us

out. It's awesome. I think I'll do that. And that wraps

up another quantum powered episode of Impact Quantum. If

your brain isn't buzzing with the possibilities of photonic qubits

and hybrid architectures, then frankly, were you even listening?

A massive thanks to Frank and Candice for navigating the quantum

chaos with their usual wit, wisdom, and just the right

amount of caffeinated bravado. Now if you enjoyed

this conversation, and let's be honest, of course you did,

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remember, the quantum future is already knocking. Don't be

the one still stuck in classical.