Q+AI+Coffee

Uncover the Coffee Cup of Quantum + AI

By Brian Siegelwax posted 22 Sep 2025

With a focus on sustainability, VTT isn’t just advancing the utilization and commercialization of research and technology in commerce and society; it’s also sponsoring caffeination at IQT’s upcoming Q+AI conference, which will sustain The Quantum Dragon and other attendees all day every day of the conference.

This week’s premium content:

In this edition:

Quantum Machines made a funny.
QuEra’s Quantum Mythbusters
Maybe Dr. Bob Sutor is amazed.
Cash in Dr. Aggie Branczyk’s citations.
Dancing with Infleqtion’s Rubidium Atom
Schrödinger’s Dating Analogy
“Whether you see [working with Dr. James Wootton] as a pro or con is up to you.”
“[IonQ’s] kind of hype ends in tears.”
“[PsiQuantum is] not going to replace GPUs [or] AI supercomputers.”
MEET 6 SPEAKERS APPEARING AT QUANTUM + AI 2025
EARLY BIRD SAVINGS FOR QUANTUM + AI END 25 SEPTEMBER
Q+AI NEW YORK DINNER HARBOR CRUISE 19 OCTOBER
Inside Amazon Braket’s Dragon Cave
Continuous operation of a coherent 3,000-qubit system
Alice & Bob’s 100 new hires by 2026
A PhD Thesis on Quantum Computer Music
IQM Academy on a Nintendo Game Boy
Zapata AI Job Seekers… only 1 left on this list!
Quantum Noise Detector

Quantum Machines made a funny.

If Quantum Machines is going to keep making animated jokes about quantum error correction (QEC), it’s going to start spending a lot of time in this newsletter. It already earned two slots in last week’s edition, and I’ve got plenty of real estate, so keep ‘em coming! This link might require a LinkedIn account.

QuEra’s Quantum Mythbusters

This article is almost two months old, but I somehow missed it, so maybe you did too? It would be really cool if the article had been devised as a Mythbusters-like experiment, demonstrating why quantum computing won’t be replacing HPC next year, or any other year for that matter.

Maybe Dr. Bob Sutor is amazed.

Maybe it’s time for people to stop being so amazed by quantum, but it’ll never be time to stop being so amazed by Dr. Sutor’s commentary. It’ll also never be time to stop being so amazed by The Quantum Dragon, but we know that with Godfather Bob that that’s always implied.

Cash in Dr. Aggie Branczyk’s citations.

You can’t cash in Dr. Branczyk’s citations, nor can you cash in yours, but this post is the first time I’ve encountered this wishful thought, so I’m sharing it.

Dancing with Infleqtion’s Rubidium Atom

Apologies for stealing Dr. Bob Sutor’s catchphrase, but this video is titled “Rubidium Atom Dancing in Infleqtion Magneto Optical Trap (MOT),” and Dr. Sutor’s book titles come to mind anytime I see “dancing” with anything quantum. I’m sure you already have Dancing with Qubits and Dancing with Python, so you get the reference.

Schrödinger’s Dating Analogy

The Big Bang Theory has been off the air for a while, but I just stumbled across this superposition reference. Wait for the punchline near the end of this 2:27 video.

“Whether you see [working with Dr. James Wootton] as a pro or con is up to you.”

If you want the tenure track assistant professor job at the University of Basel, you may have to work with Dr. Wootton, the Dungeon Master of Quantum Computing, as well as an expert in self-deprecating humor. I would love to post more self-deprecating humor myself, but I’m not funny.

“[IonQ’s] kind of hype ends in tears.”

IonQ, which has fewer than 100 physical qubits today, is going to have 10,000 physical qubits in 2027 that will “wipe the floor” with today’s supercomputers and make NVIDIA’s Blackwell appear outdated. I’m so excited about this, I’ve finally decided to sell this bridge I’ve been holding onto. This link might require a Twitter account.

“[PsiQuantum is] not going to replace GPUs [or] AI supercomputers.”

In stark contrast to IonQ’s claim above, PsiQuantum’s Dr. Pete Shadbolt didn’t use the phrase “wipe the floor” even once. Not once. Nothing will be outdated, let alone replaced. So, you can choose to believe Dr. Shadbolt’s reasonable response or you can take a second look at my bridge. This link might require a LinkedIn account.

MEET 6 SPEAKERS APPEARING AT QUANTUM + AI 2025

Over 80 speakers are appearing October 19-21 at Q+AI With Quantum + Crypto in New York City. Meet these 6: Steve Yalovitser (Amazon Web Services); Joseph Wolfe (DLA Piper); Zack Shapiro (Bitcoin Policy Institute); Ton Van‘t Noordende (QDNL Participations); Ilana Wisby (Quantum Moth); Michael Strike (Quantum Resistant Ledger). Check out all of the speakers: www.iqtevent.com.

EARLY BIRD DRAGON SAVINGS FOR QUANTUM + AI END 25 SEPTEMBER

If you are thinking of attending Quantum + AI (October 19-21) make sure to take advantage of early bird savings ending 25 September. One can save nearly $600 by registering next week. Additional information: www.iqtevent.com.

Q+AI NEW YORK DINNER HARBOR CRUISE 19 OCTOBER

A unique feature of the upcoming Quantum + AI event is an early evening dinner cruise on New York Harbor on 19 October. The cruise is a lovely way to network with colleagues prior to the official opening of Q+AI and Q+Crypto. Complete schedule and numerous networking opportunities can be found at www.iqtevent.com.

Inside Amazon Braket’s Dragon Cave

The Quantum Dragon already knew that Amazon Braket has a garnet, but when he found out that they have an emerald, too, there was no stopping him. He had to go check it out.

Using a reloading rate of 300,000 atoms in tweezers per second, we create over 30,000 initialized qubits per second, which we leverage to assemble and maintain an array of over 3,000 atoms for more than two hours.

Continuous operation of a coherent 3,000-qubit system

This Nature-published paper, with its authors from Harvard, MIT, and ETH Zurich, is interesting because of the approach they took. I saw the headline and assumed that they loaded 3,000 atoms and did a bunch of operations for a few seconds or so. I did not expect to see 300,000 atoms reloaded per second for two hours.

Alice & Bob’s 100 new hires by 2026

The notion that Schrödinger Box Tester applicants need to have life insurance is enough to get this post into this newsletter, but even without Alice & Bob’s usual flair I would still include an announcement of 100 new job openings. That’s not insignificant, wouldn’t you say? This link might require a LinkedIn account.

A PhD Thesis on Quantum Computer Music

Now-Dr. Peter Thomas, supervised by Prof. Eduardo Reck Miranda, has defended “Zen and the Art of Praxis: New Adventures in Live Coding, Quantum Computing, and The Web.” You too can earn a PhD in quantum computer music via the University of Plymouth’s PhD Quantum Computing in the Arts, Music and Humanities.

IQM Academy on a Nintendo Game Boy

Thanks to Laurent Prost for sharing this post from Dr. Stefan Seegerer. It includes a 0:32 video with screenshots, as well as brief clips of the colorized 8-bit gameplay. This link might require a LinkedIn account.

A Comic-Based Quantum Mechanics Midterm Question

Prof. Tom Wong is apparently including comics in his midterms. Points be damned, I’d choose the “chaotic” answer. This link might require a Twitter account.

Zapata AI Job Seekers… only 1 left on this list!

If you were laid off by Zapata AI and would like a free listing in this newsletter, please reach out and let me know. I’ll maintain a list in The Quantum Dragon until everyone on the list has been gainfully employed elsewhere or is otherwise no longer actively job seeking. I might extend this offer to all job seekers, but I’ll start with these layoffs.

Shawn Gibford Industrial PHDc: Quantum Applications in the Life Sciences

Quantum Noise Detector

Alan Ho and Prof. Michael Biercuk inspired the Resuscitated Quantum Bullshit Detector, but the original(?) has resurfaced on Bluesky. It’s back to reposting a simple “bullshit” or “not bullshit,” so The Quantum Dragon will continue to monitor for challenges, controversies, and debates under this new name from Dr. Bob Sutor.

Kike Miralles posted (LinkedIn) about benchmarking quantum processors, and some of the comments can be construed as critical.
Andreea-Iulia Lefterovici stirred some disagreement regarding quantum advantage vs quantum utility (LinkedIn). I agree with Laurent Prost.