US joins forces for race to quantum superiority

Australia and the US will join forces in the global race to master what scientists believe will be the world’s most disruptive technological field.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addresses the Sydney Dialogue on Friday.

Australia and the US will join forces in the global race to master quantum computing, in a bid to beat China to key advances in what scientists believe will be the world’s most disruptive technological field over the next 10 to 20 years.

Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price signed an agreement with US President Joe Biden’s science adviser, Eric Lander, vowing to share quantum computing skills and knowledge to accelerate the pace of discoveries.

The move comes just days after Scott Morrison identified quantum computing as one of nine critical technologies to be prioritised for the nation’s future security.

Under the deal, Australia and the US will explore new applications for the technology, engage in joint research, build secure supply chains for quantum hardware, and develop standards to ensure interoperability.

“As a critical technology that will shape our world for years to come, quantum technology offers incredible opportunities for Australia and the United States,” Ms Price said. “Quantum technologies will help us overcome significant challenges that current computers struggle to solve, will help make our day-to-day lives safer and more convenient, and create more secure communications technologies.”

The deal came as former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe called for his nation to become a key technology partner to the new AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the US and UK.

Mr Abe told the inaugural Sydney Dialogue that AUKUS would be “extremely important” to promote regional stability amid an “increasingly severe” security environment, and urged Japan to work with the alliance to deliver its science and technology ambitions.

“I think that Japan should ­engage in the co-operation under the AUKUS in such areas as cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies,” he told the dialogue on Friday.

In addition to developing ­nuclear submarines for Australia, the AUKUS partnership is ­intended to spark a new level of scientific collaboration between the partners on critical and ­defence technologies.

Mr Abe, the so-called “Father of the Quad”, said the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue partners – Australia, India, Japan and the US – should be at the forefront of critical technology development.

Mr Abe backed the Quad’s statement in September announcing a new set of principles on technology development and governance, emphasising the need to build trust, safety and freedom into new innovations.

“Quad countries need to have a moral high ground and spread these values and principles as a shared understanding by the international community,” he said.

“At the same time, it is also imperative for Quad countries to promote concrete co-operation and share the outcomes with other countries.”

He said 5G and “beyond 5G” technologies would be fundamental to digital society, and the Quad nations “should co-ordinate closely and accelerate the ­securement of safe, open and transparent networks”.

“Keeping collaboration with Japanese companies’ existing projects in mind, I think Japan can promote concrete co-operation including technological evaluation towards social deployment,” Mr Abe said.

He said building trusted supply chains would be vital to ensuring economic prosperity, “especially (in) semiconductors and critical minerals”.

India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told the dialogue that technology “has always been a double-edged sword”.

“It has brought good but with every good that it has brought, it has brought new vulnerabilities and new challenges,” he said. “I think what is different today is that the impact it has on our daily lives, on our culture, on our psychology, on our behaviour, is something of a totally different order.”

He said the technology world could not be run on 19th century principles of capitalism, and required “basic regulations, a sense of equity, a sense of fairness”.

“I mean, you can’t have data pillaging as a basis for a global business,” he said, in an apparent swipe at the big tech companies.