Quantum computing and the board: Managing risk, migration and opportunity

All right.

Thanks for that, Kira.

I feel slightly smarter about quantum computing, but man, just shows the scope, breadth, depth of what board members need to grapple with today.

Yeah, absolutely.

I left that interview and my head felt very physically heavy.

There was a lot of new information to consider.

And I mean, to me, the quantum computing issue specifically for the board is just the definition of a gray rhino where you can see it and it's, A couple years out into the future, one of the things that Aaron said that scared me a little bit was this idea that the timelines for these capabilities being scaled and broadly available to folks has been shortened from like a 2035 timeline out to 2028 or 2029.

So the fact that it's shortening sort of exponentially and it might be here a lot quicker than we think was definitely cause for pause.

Yeah, and I do think it gives – again, though, it opens up a bigger conversation just about how boards need to think about risk and preparedness in a world in which truly disruption is happening at every corner.

And so whether it's quantum computing or something else, how do you ask the right questions and frame conversations in the boardroom so that you feel like you – not only necessarily a good understanding, it's not necessarily about the physics of it all, but that, again, you are framing risks in the right way and protecting what needs to be protected without maybe even losing some of the upside that comes along with some of this new technology.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think, though, the catch-22 is that this is something where Aaron pointed out, they know how the math is going to work.

I think, theoretically, what quantum computing can do...

We know that part of it, or at least we have a pretty good understanding of what it's going to be able to do.

The problem is just having the actual computers themselves and the equipment catch up with what we now know is theoretically possible.

That's still a little bit of a ways away, it sounds like.

And I think what my big takeaway from this interview was is the idea that I don't know that given the environment we're currently in, if boards are going to have the luxury to take the sort of preparedness steps that they need to be taking right now.

It's a luxury to be able to look at something that we know is not going to be a problem for another two or three years and start thinking about it now.

There are so many other issues that are so urgent and so pressing.

And I think we've seen that a lot in the last few years that I think while the advice is good and it's something the boards probably should be starting to think about and ask questions about now, I don't know that they have the time.

That's a really, really great point.

It might be worth framing as part of a broader annual risk review or semi-annual risk review, just to think about a number of different things in this space and understanding just the strategic implications if things mature faster than already expected.

Yeah.

And I think also looking at how quantum then hooks into a lot of the other issues that are super pressing for directors right now might be a good way to do it.

So things like geopolitical risk, things like the current cybersecurity landscape, because obviously quantum capabilities are going to play into that.