*We suggest reading Urbasi Sinha’s profile first, for an explainer on just what quantum is!
Quantum may be quirky, but it’s far from unfamiliar. Take the natural world. Migratory birds and whales use quantum navigation to “see” magnetic fields to help find their way. Plants perform quantum computations to harness the sun, the fundamental energy process driving all life on Earth. We have known that the laws of classical physics break down at the microscopic level for more than 100 years – and eventually used quantum science to build wide-ranging tech: GPS. MRI. Lasers. Solar cells.
Today, a post-quantum world beckons. Even as researchers continue to dig deep into the remaining mysteries of subatomic particles and how they behave, a new commercial age of applications is already on the horizon. And Fernando Dominguez Pinuaga, Vice President of Global Outreach at SandboxAQ, is on a mission to move products, companies, and nations future-forward.
How? By merging quantum with AI. Offering businesses AI+Quantum (AQ) software to spot solutions and untapped uses. Increase competitiveness. Even unleash a new economic order. As Pinuaga notes, “We made our way to the moon with 0s and 1s. Now imagine working with qubits.” For instance, it is using quantum sensing with advanced AI to make MRIs even more detailed. To sharpen flight path readings – or even move beyond GPS to overcome weather- and terrain-related disruptions that restrict geo-location tagging. Its quantum-inspired algorithms are being put to use to accelerate and simulate drug discovery. To mitigate risk and detect fraud. To optimise financial portfolios. It counts Accenture, HSBC, and SoftBank among its clients.
SandboxAQ, a spin-off from Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is not Pinuaga’s first stint at priming the world for ground-breaking tech. Earlier, Pinuaga worked for Google, strengthening partnerships with governments and private entities to bring Google services, like Google Maps, across Latin America. He was also involved with X, Google’s secret lab that calls itself the Moonshot Factory, where radical ideas that can solve the world’s most pressing challenges are incubated. Self-driving cars. Balloons peddling internet to remote places. Recycling robots. Pinuaga has been for taking the tech out of the lab, and making economic sense out of it, for investors and venture capitalists. He specialises in generating critical-mass conversations among C-suite execs.
And if there’s a critical-mass conversation to be had today, it is one around security. Quantum computing is reaching new highs. Saudi Arabia will be deploying its first quantum computer in 2025. IBM has released a first-ever 1000-qubit quantum chip. China has developed a new computer prototype that calculates in one microsecond what would take Frontier, the fastest classical computer, 20 billion years to perform. The biggest threat to these ventures? An insidious practice called Store-Now Decrypt Later – hackers are stealing sensitive data and patiently waiting to decrypt once powerful quantum computing – that can crack classical cryptography – becomes more readily available, such as through the cloud. While quantum computing is not yet population-scale ready or error-proof – one error per 1000 compared to one in a million made by a classical computer – AQ technology looks to offer a bridge to that eventual future. SandboxAQ is working with companies to secure assets, infrastructure, and intellectual property against a growing number of cybersecurity and quantum risks, even before the coming adversary strikes. Perhaps a daunting task, but one Pinuaga is set up nicely to tackle, given his former career as an international rugby player.
SandboxAQ is making its mark by turning implications into applications. From chemistry to medicine. Aerospace to finance. Cryptography to cybersecurity. At SYNAPSE, Fernando Dominguez Pinuaga will explain the next quantum leap in the offing and unpack the AQ advantage. Parse through rhetoric and reality. Is quantum really ready to take off by 2025? Marvel and mania. Just how much of everyday will be disrupted? And the impact and implications of turbocharging one supertechnology with another – for industry and geopolitics.