{ "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": 97, "pageCount": 183, "prevPage": 96, "nextPage": 98, "slideType": "expose_contradiction", "function": "expose_contradiction", "density": "dense", "nDataPoints": 0, "notes": "Uses testimonial-style quotes to undermine the company's technical claims.", "elementsJson": [ "paragraph", "quote_block", "callout_box" ], "metadataConfidence": 1, "imagePath": null, "slideHref": "/slides/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523/97", "deckHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523", "deckJsonHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523.json", "deckAnchorHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-1cc056790523#slide-97", "components": [ { "bbox": null, "kind": "callout", "text": "IonQ's system can only be used for \"artificial,\" useless computations; can't do anything a prehistoric computer can't", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Visual emphasis", "toolSlug": "visual-emphasis", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd952-f5d2-7501-bd80-9e785a12c6e8", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.35, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.08 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "The press release then reveals the tests that IonQ used – the Bernstein-Vazirani and Hidden Shift algorithms. In contrast to Monroe and Kim’s doth-protest-too-much shtick about the “real-world” nature of these benchmarks, every ex-employee who we asked to comment slammed them as exactly the rubbish the founders decried as “hype.” One described them as cynical self-serving exercises that are “contrived” and where you’ve “just constructed a problem that has no real application” except to show your system is “the best.” A leading researcher who has published with IonQ’s founders called the algorithms “artificial” and focused on a “very constrained type of problem.”", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "1277c474-deb7-4527-8fb5-827f97a0c7df", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.2, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.48 }, "kind": "quote", "text": "Quantum supremacy experiments are cynical self-serving exercises solving “a problem that no real application” “It’s contrived. Everyone wants to say they have a device that has quantum supremacy that can perform a calculation 10 million times faster than a classical computer. But if you’re very specifically tailoring the problem you’re solving to be something that is easy to do on a quantum computer but almost impossible to do on a classical computer, then it’s very easy to show you have supremacy, but you’ve just constructed a problem that has no real application, other than to demonstrate the fact that your computer can do something a classical computer couldn’t do.” - Former IonQ employee, physicist", "attrs": null, "subkind": "testimonial", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "2dc34b91-079e-47fb-bdd2-9cf032008a78", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.25, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.7 }, "kind": "quote", "text": "IonQ’s system can only be used for “artificial,” useless computations; can’t do anything a prehistoric computer can’t “You can do some computations, but you would have to constrain your computational model to something artificial...a very constrained type of problem. Or you can demonstrate the Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm, which is a kind of an algorithm that tells you something about a black box, and, again, a black box is a construct taken from theoretical computer science, and it’s not necessarily the most practical type of construct, which is to say that within the black box computational model, there is nothing that IonQ’s device can do that a computer from the past, a classical computer from the past would not be able to do. Let’s say IBM 3000; I think it’s sufficiently prehistoric.” - Leading quantum computing researcher who has published papers with IonQ’s founders", "attrs": null, "subkind": "testimonial", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "b032684e-e72f-4a31-b034-8a0e6bdb7a31", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": null, "kind": "quote", "text": "\"It's contrived. Everyone wants to say they have a device that has quantum supremacy that can perform a calculation 10 million times faster than a classical computer. But if you're very specifically tailoring the problem you're solving to be something that is easy to do on a quantum computer but almost impossible to do on a classical computer, then it's very easy to show you have supremacy, but you've just constructed a problem that has no real application, other than to demonstrate the fact that your computer can do something a classical computer couldn't do.\" — Former IonQ employee, physicist", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Authority citation", "toolSlug": "authority-citation", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd952-f5d2-7501-bd80-a1264d1d1144", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.02, "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": "c7e7642c-b7c3-4961-809d-b551677686ee", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null } ], "metrics": [], "tools": [], "frameworks": [ { "name": "ceo-quote-contradiction", "slug": null, "matchId": "2c9fce34-fbc7-4b9e-99dc-3c4cfa138c6f", "evidence": "Contrasts company claims with expert testimony", "confidence": 0.9 } ], "arcBeats": [], "loops": [], "imagePathAlt": null, "thumbSrc": null, "thumbSrcAlt": null, "locked": true }