Quantum Performance

Metric For the Future

Today’s quantum community is struggling with ways to define its progress. Terms like quantum supremacy, quantum advantage, quantum utility are being advocated across traditional and social media to differentiate quantum technologies from classical systems.

Yet when perceived by consumers, terms like quantum supremacy suggest universal supremacy (i.e. quantum computers are superior to all classical computers), not the highly pillared results the authors argue they have achieved. To be sure every technology set needs to evolve, yet are we doing a disservice to it by using terms misunderstood by those who would be its consuming audience?

At the Qubits 2024 conference in Boston recently, I posited a different metric definition that conforms to the expectations of buyers of quantum technologies - that of “quantum performance”.

Image source: Brian Lenahan/Midjourney