The Decade of the Quantum Computer is Upon Us, Says IBM’s Dario Gil, Senior VP and Director of IBM Research

(WallStreetJournal) “This is going to be the decade in which quantum really comes of age,” said Dario Gil, senior vice president and director of IBM Research, at The Wall Street Journal’s recent virtual CIO Network summit.
IBM is planning to release new quantum systems this year and next, but a big shift will come with the system the company plans to release in 2023, Dr. Gil said. That one for the first time will allow engineers to mitigate errors through software, as opposed to only through hardware.
“We’ve got to get these computers to operate without errors, and if we can do that we’ll realize their full potential,” he said. “So what we envision is in 2023, when we deliver that
system, it will be an inflection point in that the errors of quantum computers will continue to decrease exponentially through software, as opposed to just by making the device better.”
After that point, he said, quantum computers will start to be used on a broader scale.
Major corporations are already experimenting with early-stage quantum technology, among them, Visa Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Roche Holding AG and Volkswagen AG .
Dr. Gil said quantum computers will be able to speed up research-and-development discoveries because the machines will excel at modeling physics, chemistry and materials science. This could lead to developing more energy-efficient batteries in the auto sector, he said, or better carbon-capture membranes to fight climate change. “That’s my vision: Bring the power of computing to compress the time to discovery of what we need,” he said.