Michelle Maggs

VP corporate marketing @ D-Wave Systems, working mom, hard-core foodie, lover of all things 80's. Views shared are my own.

[Alan Baratz @Alan_Baratz]

.@jimcramer @madmoneyoncnbc “I want you to own D-Wave.” Enough said. $QBTS
Lightning Round: I want you to own D-Wave Quantum, says Jim Cramer
https://t.co/Y3mpgJVdYx

[Alan Baratz @Alan_Baratz]

@jimcramer @madmoneyoncnbc “I want you to own D-Wave.” Enough said. $QBTS
Lightning Round: I want you to own D-Wave Quantum, says Jim Cramer https://t.co/Y3mpgJVdYx

[Steve Jurvetson @FutureJurvetson]

Quantum Supremacy: An Entangled Tale of Two Paths
This watershed moment — when a quantum computer outperforms all classical computers by an insurmountable margin — surfaced in this week’s WSJ: D-Wave’s “latest machine can compute quantities in minutes that would take the world’s most powerful supercomputer millions of years. ‘Of all the computational supremacy claims so far,’ of quantum compared with conventional computers, ‘this one is actually the strongest,’ says Daniel Lidar, director of the USC Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology.”

There have been some earlier weak claims by research groups to have achieved supremacy, but their application domains have been utterly useless and ungeneralizable, like using a quantum computer to just simulate itself.

So, the recent paper by D-Wave Systems entitled “Computational Supremacy in Quantum Simulation” might have been ignored at first. I invested in D-Wave 21 years ago, and have seen them keep at it, a bit of a black swan in the quantum computing community, with an architecture unlike the others.

All of the other quantum computer companies are pursuing a “gate model” quantum computer, and they have raised billions of dollars of funding (over $2B in 2022 alone). But so far, they have no commercial application. All of their revenue is for basic research and one-off studies of what’s possible. They have great potential, if they can scale, for a variety of applications, including cracking encryption. Hence the government interest and funding.

In contrast to the gate model, D-Wave builds “quantum annealers”. You can think of it as an application-specific processor (like an NVIDIA GPU) versus a general computer (like a PC but programmed by brilliant quantum physicists). D-Wave is not useful for cracking encryption. It does one thing very well – discrete optimization. This may sound esoteric, but it maps to many real-world applications, from route optimization to AI training to quantum chemistry of magnetic materials. And the application domains for the two types of quantum computing may not overlap; experimental and theoretical work concludes that gate model quantum computers will not be useful for optimization, just as quantum annealers are not good at tasks well suited for gate model machines.

Meanwhile from D-Wave’s latest paper:

“We assess approximate methods based on tensor networks and neural networks and conclude that no known approach can achieve the same accuracy as the quantum annealer within a reasonable timeframe. Thus, quantum annealers can answer questions of practical importance that classical computers cannot."

"Extrapolation beyond the simulable scale to a few hundred qubits, far below the maximum experimental scale [of D-Wave], indicates a hypothetical runtime on the Frontier supercomputer surpassing millions of years with infeasible memory and energy requirements.”

• D-Wave’s paper, currently in a peer-review process:
https://t.co/clGhSntej9

• WSJ: https://t.co/whqkAWkVTr

• IBM’s frustration with optimization: https://t.co/hKQoKHuC8Z

• QC funding: https://t.co/0RSe7zZlo1

[Michelle Maggs @mmmaggs]

Congrats to everyone at @icertis!

[Icertis @icertis]

Thrilled to announce we closed an $80 million funding round AND welcomed two highly distinguished leaders - @PennyPritzker and @Karynsf - to our board! Thank you to our customers, partners, and #IcertisProud family for always supporting us. https://t.co/nCftGwJ6nE

[Michelle Maggs @mmmaggs]

For B2B marketing comms pros, COVID-19 is disrupting tried-and-true channels for awareness, lead gen. How can we pivot to fuel the pipeline? #PR #b2b @current_global https://t.co/wu8sntkuX0

[PRovoke Media @Provoke_News]

Microsoft India Shifts India PR Mandate To Edelman And Current Global https://t.co/nUZyqr95Lo

[Current Global @current_global]

Excited to add more senior talent to our growing team. Read about it in today’s @PRWeek, and welcome @RedClayHound and @destad! https://t.co/59KpWaSvLL

[Melinda French Gates @melindagates]

Women represent just 26% of the tech workforce in the U.S. You can help change this by supporting groups that are creating pathways into tech for women and girls, like @BlackGirlsCode, @Code2040, and @ai4allorg. #EqualityCantWait

[Current Global @current_global]

Happy #InternationalDogDay from some of our favorite furry friends here at Current Global! 🐾

[Brad Smith @BradSmi]

How can we ensure that machines remain accountable to people, and that people who create tech remain accountable to the public? This paper from @Dovetail_Labs surfaces the importance of #AIEthics and the need for voices from around the world to shape them. https://t.co/MMyYiyKa16

[Bloomberg Technology @technology]

SoftBank forms a second Vision Fund with Apple and Microsoft https://t.co/oGzis1rK9C

[Current Global @current_global]

Three months after our merger, we’re proud to report strong performance in Q2! Thank you to our clients for trusting us with their business, and to our colleagues for delivering great work. https://t.co/lctAJ08xLV

[Michelle Maggs @mmmaggs]

Awesome to see these leaders continue to grow!

[Weber Shandwick @WeberShandwick]

Two powerhouse players taking on even greater challenges. Congratulations to @andypolansky, on his new role as Chairman and CEO of Constituency Management Group and to Gail Heimann, on her promotion to #WeberShandwick CEO. We can’t wait to see what they do next! #webersolves

[CNET News @CNETNews]

Almost 50% of kids are spending over 30 hours a week on a cell phone https://t.co/61kzBJnl3M

[WIRED @WIRED]

These people aren't real. They were made by machine learning algorithms for a game that pairs counterfeit pics with real ones. Unnerved? You should be: https://t.co/qBndDQUHza
📸: Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West/University of Washington; Philip Wang/thispersondoesnotexist[dot]com

[Current Global @current_global]

No shortage of #CannesLion shortlist nods for The Gun
Violence History Book! Proud of our work with @fcbchi and #client Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence @NoGunViolence https://t.co/5t1mWIOmaM

[Current Global @current_global]

Welcome Jacelyn Seng as our healthcare practice lead in North America! #CutrentGlobal https://t.co/7r871tQqmz

[TechCrunch @TechCrunch]

Salesforce is buying data visualization company Tableau for $15.7B in all-stock deal https://t.co/fSzVsrsYVh by @ingridlunden

[Fast Company @FastCompany]

Businesses understand the value of emotional intelligence. But far too many aren’t prioritizing cultural intelligence, argues diversity and inclusion strategist Stacey Gordon https://t.co/30LNs5c1Zr