【Text by Observers Network, Zhang Jingjuan】"A new round of technological competition has begun. Can Europe learn from its past failures?" Politico, a U.S. political news website, reported on July 2 with this title, stating that Europe, which has fallen behind rapidly in the artificial intelligence race, now has a new opportunity to rewrite its economic success story in the emerging quantum technology field, but it also faces some familiar challenges.

In a new strategy released on the 2nd, the EU warned that due to the continued lag in converting research results into "real market opportunities," the promising domestic quantum technology faces the risk of being acquired by foreign capital for profit.

The EU found that Europe only attracted 5% of global private quantum technology funding, while the United States and China attracted more than 50% and 40% respectively.

According to the report, the ability of quantum computers to solve problems will be several orders of magnitude higher than that of existing computers, and will completely change various fields from communication to drug development. Governments and tech companies around the world are investing billions of dollars in the quantum computing industry.

The report pointed out that Europe ranks first in the number of scientific publications in the field of quantum technology.

"Although Europe has gradually fallen behind in many technological areas, we are ahead of other countries by several years in this field," said Juha Vartiainen, co-founder of Finnish quantum computing company IQM.

However, in the competition to commercialize research results, Europe may soon fall behind. Its patent application volume is only third, behind China and the United States.

For many people, everything seems familiar. Just like in the field of artificial intelligence, Europe is usually at the top in the early research of revolutionary technologies, but China and the United States have surpassed Europe in establishing large-scale deployment of market applications.

A major point of contention at present is whether Europe will provide free space for the development of the quantum industry. Quantum computers are considered sensitive technology because they are expected to break digital encryption technology that protects data and communications from surveillance and theft, making the technology a national security issue. Now, multiple European countries have implemented export restrictions.

On April 12, 2023, French President Macron and Dutch King Willem-Alexander visited the University of Amsterdam, visiting the quantum technology laboratory. IC photo

Last month, IBM scientists said they had solved the biggest bottleneck in quantum computing and plan to launch the world's first truly large-scale quantum computer in 2029. According to IBM scientists, it will be 20,000 times more powerful than any current quantum computer.

The report pointed out that this highlights the urgency for Europe to sort out its own affairs. For decades, Europe has failed to overcome the problem of a fragmented financial market and cannot gather large amounts of capital as China and the United States can.

Enrique Lizaso, CEO of Spanish financial quantum computing R&D company Multiverse Computing, admitted, "It is extremely difficult to scale up businesses in Europe, because we lack sufficient European tools and European venture capital..."

According to the report, the company raised 189 million euros in a financing round last month, with investors including those from the United States and Europe.

Lizaso said that if Europe wants to help local companies scale up, it must be ready to invest 100 million euros in each company, "which is the amount of funding available in the United States."

Henna Virkkunen, EU Commissioner for Technology, said in an interview on the 1st that Brussels and national governments have jointly invested 11 billion euros in quantum technology. She said, "Now it is important, since we are quite fragmented, to bring different resources together."

Vartiainen believes that Europe's measures provide funding for multiple areas of quantum technology, but the way of dispersing funds weakens its impact. He said Europe should follow the example of the United States and release larger-scale investments for key "challenges."

In a program led by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 18 companies were selected to develop error-free quantum computers by 2033. If these companies pass all stages, they can receive up to $300 million in funding.

At the 6th China International Import Expo, visitors watched the programmable quantum computer system - the "Zhu Chongzhi" model in the China Pavilion. IC Photo

The report pointed out that the draft of the EU strategy promises to launch "two major challenges" between 2025 and 2027, one focusing on quantum computing and the other on quantum navigation systems in "critical environments."

Another way for the government to support enterprises in commercializing technology is to become a major buyer of the technology, thus reducing the entry barriers for the industry.

The draft strategy stated that the European Commission will "support innovation-oriented procurement plans," but did not specify the specific implementation methods.

According to the report, companies clearly do not want Brussels to regulate and restrict quantum technology, such as implementing technical export restrictions.

Some industry insiders warned that the EU's approach to regulating artificial intelligence was a wrong example. Due to concerns about the potential harm of the technology, the EU once introduced the world's first comprehensive regulatory law in the field of artificial intelligence - the AI Act, and later adjusted policies to focus on AI innovation and business success.

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, General Secretary of the main EU tech lobbying group "Digital Europe," said, "We cannot make regulations for technologies that are not yet mature, otherwise Europe may lose the quantum competition."

Quantum computing is one of the focal points of the great power technology competition. China has recently made continuous breakthroughs in this field. The Hong Kong English media South China Morning Post noted that in February this year, Professor Wang Jianwei and Professor Gong Qihuang's research group from the Institute of Modern Optics, School of Physics, Peking University, and Professor Su Xiaolong's research group from Shanxi University published a breakthrough research result in Nature - a Chinese research team successfully achieved the world's first "continuous variable" quantum entanglement cluster state based on integrated photonic quantum chips.

Related experts said that the achievement filled the critical technical gap of using continuous variable encoding methods in photonic quantum chips, and also laid an important foundation for the large-scale expansion of photonic quantum chips and their application in quantum computing, quantum networks, and other fields.

This article is exclusive to Observers Network. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7522687959552819747/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author and welcomes your opinion through the [Up/Down] buttons below.