Full-Scale Quantum Computing May Be Years Away. Risk Mitigation Can’t Wait.

Artificial intelligence is that shiniest of objects, capturing the attention and imaginations not only of investors, governments and business leaders, but also of academicians, social scientists and even some technologists wary of its power to overwhelm regulatory and governance guardrails.

Quantum computing, on a similar exponential track with perceived existential implications, and even seeing breakthroughs by the likes of Google and  IBM, isn’t yet generating that level of urgency and alarm. That is going to change if voices like Mauritz Kop are heeded.

“The most immediate risk is not a science fiction Q-Day,” says Kop, the founding director of the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology (RQT), referring to the anticipated moment when quantum systems are capable of breaking the encryption codes that safeguard modern-day communications and commerce.

“I worry about long-lived assets – financial records, identity data, health and government archives” – which could fall victim to “a lack of crypto-agility and weak vendor oversight,” adds Kop, who also created the  Stanford Quantum Incubator and is a senior fellow at...