What is quantum computing good for? XPRIZE and Google offer cash for answers

The sponsors of a new $5 million prize want to boost the quantum computing industry by encouraging developers to write new algorithms to help the emerging technology solve real-world problems.

The new Quantum for Real-World Impact contest, from the XPRIZE Foundation, aims to speed the development of quantum computing algorithms focused on sustainability, health, and other societal issues. The three-year contest, sponsored by Google Quantum AI and the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation, wants to “unleash the potential” of quantum computing, according to the contest site.

“Currently, quantum computers are not sufficiently advanced enough to solve real-world societal problems that classical computers cannot,” the contest site says. “However, as the technology advances, relatively few companies and university researchers are focused on translating quantum algorithms into real-world application scenarios and assessing their feasibility to address global challenges once sufficiently powerful hardware is available.”

The new contest is crucial for the advancement of quantum computing, said Rebecca Krauthamer, co-founder and chief product officer at QuSecure, a vendor of quantum-resilient cybersecurity tools.

“XPRIZE has a powerful history of pushing forward advancements in cutting-edge technology in spaceflight, conservation, advanced medicine, and more,” she said. The contest “signifies we’re in a truly exciting time for quantum computing.”

Quantum computing hardware development still has a “significant road ahead,” she added, but much of the innovation from the technology will come from new algorithms and the application of quantum computers to real-world problems.

The contest provides “the recognition of the great potential of quantum computing for both commercial and societal gain,” she added.

Potential quantum applications

Contestants can write new algorithms to solve new problems using quantum computing, they can show how existing algorithms can be used to solve previously unknown applications of quantum computing, or they can show ways to reduce the computing resources needed for a quantum computer to work on already established algorithms or applications.

Examples of possible contest entries include:

• Enhancing the drug discovery process by enabling more accurate predictions of how medicine candidates interact with proteins in the human body.
• Making simulations of electrical grid loads more efficient by improving the way quantum computers model inductors and capacitors.
• Reducing carbon emissions and improving energy efficiency by better modeling materials and molecules, such as those in batteries or fusion reactors.

The contest is a good starting point for quantum computing in business models, said Jim Ingraham, vice president of strategic research, EPB of Chattanooga, a power and telecommunications company that launched a quantum-powered network in late 2022. “Commercialization is the next essential step for bringing quantum technologies out of the lab and into the real world,” he said.

The EPB Quantum Network was another step forward, he added. The network “provides access to the necessary proving ground for quantum technologists to show investment worthiness and commercial viability,” he said. “This is a necessary step to help companies, government agencies and researchers accelerate the development of their technologies.”

The contest may assist companies that haven’t found a way to profit from quantum computing innovation, added Lawrence Gasman, founder and president of Inside Quantum Technology, a quantum research firm.

“It may bring in firms that could otherwise not survive,” he said. “This implies that the use of money is carefully vetted and only goes to firms that can make money in the short-to-medium term.”

While quantum computing is not yet mainstream, that day is coming, said QuSecure’s Krauthamer.

“When you see a news headline stating that quantum computers have been used to solve a problem that you recognize — something like enhancing battery technology, or optimizing financial portfolios, or improving greenhouse emissions — that’s when you’ll know that quantum computing has gone mainstream,” she said. “We will begin seeing these headlines more in the next couple of years.”