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16 September 2024

DARPA ‘quantum skeptic’ challenges industry: Prove me wrong

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

As entrepreneurs, researchers, and executives gather this week at the Quantum World Congress outside Washington, how can anyone cut through the hype and figure out which nascent technology has real potential? That’s why DARPA has issued an open challenge to anyone developing a quantum computer to submit themselves to rigorous government testing, led by a self-described “quantum skeptic.”

The deadline to submit a brief abstract of one’s project is Sept. 19. That date is not negotiable, warned program manager Joe Altepeter, who’s heading what the agency announced in July as the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). Contenders deemed promising will be eligible, for starters, for $1 million to help their testing, but DARPA expects them to be spending that much and more of their own money.

“I have a reputation in the DARPA building as a quantum skeptic,” Altepeter said in an interview with Breaking Defense. “I was definitely the reviewer you absolutely did not want to get on your quantum submission, because I measured my success based on how much money I could save the US taxpayer by not funding dumb quantum ideas — and trust me, there are plenty of dumb quantum ideas to go around.”

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