BMO said it plans to use quantum computing to sharpen its climate predictions and improve fraud detection
“We really do believe that quantum advantage is on the horizon,” Milchanowski said in an interview. “We want to prepare ourselves for that competitive advantage moment and have all of the the different portfolio investment algorithms developed and ready to go. That’s mission one.”
“We can look at satellite data and run what’s called a quantum neural network, and we’re able to evaluate more components of that satellite image to then predict and and have more precision around where that wildfire could be travelling next,” Milchanowski said. “That’s relevant to our insurance sector as well as our banking clients.”
IBM is competing with Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others to develop quantum computers, which rely on so-called qubits and can store data in multiple forms: ones, zeros, both, or something in between. The company has been expanding its presence in Chicago, where BMO has its United States headquarters, having recently invested in a quantum campus being championed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Chicago Hires
Milchanowski said BMO’s quantum team will start small and grow over time. She expects some of the new hires to be based in Chicago, a city that’s already home to one the country’s longest quantum networks and is becoming a hub for the technology.
“The the talent pool is in Chicago,” said Milchanowski, who is an AI associate fellow of the University of Oxford and holds a PhD in decision sciences. “It’s a really competitive environment because there’s not very many of us in the world, so having these epicentres like Chicago, it just really makes sense for us to be there.”
Pritzker has been trying to turn Illinois into a hub for new technologies, luring companies in industry such as quantum to electric vehicles and life sciences. The billionaire governor has set aside US$500 million for quantum as part of the budget passed last year.
In July, PsiQuantum Corp. a California-based company, said it would build the nation’s first utility-scale quantum computer in Chicago at the state’s quantum and microelectronics park in the city’s South Side. Five months later, IBM announced it would build a national algorithm centre on the site.
“It’s not just a science project for us,” said Scott Crowder, vice president of IBM quantum adoption and business development. “It is really about building useful quantum computers. That means we have to have the world’s best scientists and the world’s best researchers to get there.”