Because GPUs are so hot right now, naturally, some technology people have started to bleed into quantum computers. With every new hardware architecture comes an accompanying software architecture, and when the two meet, there is a cambrian explosion of invention and innovation. We are experiencing this now with GPUs + transformers.

Driven primarily by curiosity, I wondered what one of the use cases for quantum computers would be. We hear about how they break encryption algorithms, but besides that, there really isn’t anything. So what can you do on a quantum computer that you can’t on a classical computer?

Biotech

Most of my work in the past couple of years has been at the intersection of computers, engineering, and biology. When we design a drug, we are designing a smaller molecule that can fit into a larger molecule to turn off the larger molecule or activate some desired function. At the molecular level, this is how all of biology works- stuff is expressed/repressed based on turning it on or off.

Last year, when I was re-learning synthetic biology, I found this paper from MIT where the authors used new computational tools to make antivenom binders for cobra toxin. This was completely in silico. They then injected these binders into mice poisoned with cobra venom, and every treated mouse survived.