{ "docId": "019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523", "docSlug": "340e94a59fc0", "documentTitle": "IonQ Inc. (IONQ)", "authorId": "58_Scorpion_Capital", "authorName": "Scorpion Capital", "documentKindSlug": "activist-deck", "documentKindLabel": "Activist deck", "sourceTypeSlug": "short_seller", "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller", "presentationDate": "2022-05-03 00:00:00", "orientation": "landscape", "aspectRatio": 1.2941177, "pageNumber": 103, "pageCount": 183, "prevPage": 102, "nextPage": 104, "slideType": "expose_contradiction", "function": "expose_contradiction", "density": "overcrowded", "nDataPoints": 3, "notes": "Uses expert testimony to undermine the company's technical claims regarding fidelity.", "elementsJson": [ "paragraph", "quote_block" ], "metadataConfidence": 0.95, "imagePath": null, "slideHref": "/slides/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523/103", "deckHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523", "deckJsonHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523.json", "deckAnchorHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523#slide-103", "components": [ { "bbox": { "h": 0.05, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.4 }, "kind": "callout", "text": "IonQ’s 98% average fidelity level introduces vast computational errors that render the machine useless", "attrs": null, "subkind": "primary", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "cbcb4795-ace5-4226-ab60-a6468e026d97", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": null, "kind": "callout", "text": "your entire computation breaks down after a few steps", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Visual emphasis", "toolSlug": "visual-emphasis", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd952-f5d2-7501-bd82-4cd4b800a453", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": null, "kind": "metric", "text": "gate fidelity: 98%", "attrs": null, "subkind": "primary", "toolName": "Quantification", "toolSlug": "quantification", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd952-f5d2-7501-bd82-55f703d1bccc", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.15, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.23 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "He stated that it prevents the computer from running a long program, as each step introduces a 2% error which by the 20th step means that “your answer is totally garbled”: “your entire computation breaks down after a few steps” - “your chances of getting the right answer diminish very, very quickly” given the tendency for “very small errors to accumulate.”", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "1c334f9b-d152-4570-9760-ad59da79274e", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.25, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.7 }, "kind": "quote", "text": "98% fidelity means that errors spin out of control and “your entire computation breaks down after a few steps” “A gate is, is the most primitive operation. And if your error scales such that every repeated step accumulates the error from the previous step, then you have 98% error. That means that if you performed 50 operations, your chances of getting “the right answer” diminish very, very quickly...It’s a little less straightforward than that when you talk about quantum computing because...things aren’t binary because they operate in a continuous variable space. So, it’s actually a lot more pernicious, and it’s one of the reasons that scaling quantum computing is so hard is because there’s room for very small errors to accumulate. It would be like if you had 98% gate accuracy; after the 11th operation, your chance of being in the correct state approximately goes to .98 to the 11...the error grows as the complexity of the circuit grows, so very quickly those errors basically diverge, and you can’t really do any smart way of summing them to get anything that makes sense. You basically lose any kind of coherence to your operations...your entire computation breaks down after a few steps.” - Former IonQ employee, physicist", "attrs": null, "subkind": "testimonial", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "35f9aa25-e917-4a9f-b16c-875a1bc13f5a", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.25, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.45 }, "kind": "quote", "text": "A: “Everyone cares about how many qubits you have in your machine, at least the public does, but what’s really important - it doesn’t matter until you have gate fidelities that are really, really good. Because the gate fidelity that you have controls what’s called the “circuit depth,” which is the complexity or the length of the algorithm that you can run.” Q: “Does gate fidelity control the circuit depth?” A: “Yes, that’s essentially correct, which is to say you can’t run a very long program if you only have a 98% fidelity on a two-qubit gate because what that means is you’re basically constantly introducing error into your computation, and by the 20th gate that you run, your answer is totally garbled because this stuff compound multiplicatively at each step. You can think about the fact that if you have a 10% chance of getting something wrong, on the 10th step, you have a .9 to the 10 accuracy, which degrades very quickly.” – Former IonQ employee, physicist", "attrs": null, "subkind": "testimonial", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "b9a4aa4c-ddab-40ae-9aea-3f104788b71a", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": null, "kind": "quote", "text": "Everyone cares about how many qubits you have in your machine, at least the public does, but what’s really important - it doesn’t matter until you have gate fidelities that are really, really good. Because the gate fidelity that you have controls what’s called the “circuit depth,” which is the complexity or the length of the algorithm that you can run. — Former IonQ employee, physicist", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Authority citation", "toolSlug": "authority-citation", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd952-f5d2-7501-bd82-51246e6f6330", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.03, "w": 0.3, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.96 }, "kind": "source-note", "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "616f932c-4ba2-46d7-b3ba-111c59c49374", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.15, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.08 }, "kind": "title", "text": "An ex-IonQ physicist provided a more technical explanation for why the company’s 2% error rate is “actually a lot more pernicious” than it appears.", "attrs": null, "subkind": "headline", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "f66aa631-9a78-441d-a04c-056eee280dc5", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null } ], "metrics": [], "tools": [], "frameworks": [ { "name": "authority-citation", "slug": null, "matchId": "a02ec91b-b19b-45f9-ac45-3d989a794d81", "evidence": "Uses expert testimony from former employees to validate technical claims.", "confidence": 0.9 } ], "arcBeats": [], "loops": [], "imagePathAlt": null, "thumbSrc": null, "thumbSrcAlt": null, "locked": true }