The company has drawn governments, a major chipmaker, and the Pentagon into an effort to control fragile photons and build a useful quantum machine. It aims to be the first.<br><br>This story was written by James O&#x27;Donnell and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com

PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light

MIT Technology Review Narrated

[SPEAKER_A] Welcome to MIT Technology Review Narrated. My name is Matt Honan. I'm our editor-in-chief. Every week, we'll bring you a fascinating, new, in-depth story from the leading edge of science and technology, covering topics like AI, biotech, climate, energy, robotics, and more. Here's this week's story. I hope you enjoy it. Narrated by Noa. Listen to more of the best articles from the world's biggest publishers on the Noa app. Or at newsoveraudio.com. James O'Donnell writes, PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light. The machine that could change the world will be housed in a room that looks like a data center crossed with an ice cream factory. Inside will be some 100 stainless steel cabinets, each about 6 feet tall and connected to a supply of liquid helium. That keeps them only a few degrees above absolute zero. Inside those cabinets will be hundreds of chips, and on those, thousands of particles of light flying through a maze of optical switches and beam splitters. Each photon must be accounted for because precisely measuring where it ends up will help answer questions that current computers might take millions of years to solve. This computer, as described, does not exist. It is the brainchild of a company called PsiQuantum, founded in 2016 by 4 physicists from UK universities. In a crowded field of deep-pocketed competitors with similarly fantastical visions, the company aims to be the first to fulfill its promise. In the years since the physicist Richard Feynman first envisioned them in 1981, Quantum computers have promised to speed up everything from medical research to AI by harnessing the qualities of quantum particles.

PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.