IBM looks to Latin America for its next quantum centers IBM is driving quantum computing in Latin America with investment in training and research, in a year in which it expects to see the first “quantum advantages” and accelerate the development of regional applications. Quantum advantage occurs when something can be done faster or more economically than with traditional computing, which faces certain physical limits to continue evolving. “Quantum computing is like a completely different paradigm, which takes advantage of the laws of quantum mechanics to process information and that allows for a completely different and more powerful approach,” Alexandre Pfeifer, IBM Quantum leader for Latin America, told BNamericas. In this interview, Pfeifer talks about the new IBM Quantum community in Mexico, the evolution of the technology, talent challenges and plans to open quantum computing innovation centers in Latin America. BNamericas: What is the current state of progress in quantum computing? Pfeifer: We have been investing in the technology for quite some time now, a couple of decades. Since 2016 we have had a quantum computer in the cloud. Today we already have a fleet with several computers, with uptime above 99%, available to everyone, with data centers in Europe and the United States. As for what technology can achieve, this year we are going to see the first of what we call quantum advantages, that is, doing something with a quantum computer that is better, or faster, or cheaper than if we did not use it. It is important to emphasize here that the quantum computer is not going to replace the classical computer; the technology, together with the algorithms that are going to provide us with the first quantum advantages, or that we expect will do so, have all been hybrid so far, and that is how we