IBM has an API that allows users to use some of their quantum computers free of charge (the “Open Plan”). This plan gives one access to small quantum computers with up to 7 physical qubits.
I have just received an e-mail informing us that their user agreement has been updated such that it no longer allows users from certain countries to access their Open Plan:
As a result of these changes, the Open Plan will no longer be available to users located in or ordinarily resident in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Cuba, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macau, Moldova, Mongolia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.
The Open Plan is specifically designed for “Educators, new learners, and developers who do not need to execute larger workloads.”. This isn’t an API powerful enough to theoretically allow an adversary to break encryption or perform another meaningful attack using these quantum computers. I think this is only going to block out these countries from experimenting with these tools in an educational setting.
This is in conjunction with their plan to retire the smaller machines in their open plan (and replace them with bigger ones)
Oh, I didn’t know that they were replacing them with bigger ones. Do you think that these two are related? Is this new system considered too powerful to give access to countries that have a not-so-good relationship with the US?
I do think these two are related although there’s probably some catch with them offering up the bigger ones for free. They are going to announce something right when (or thereabouts) the new EULA is going to take effect is my understanding.
I’ve seen this similar before in other apps tbh. Must be some legal involvement to do with sharing and countries you’re allowed to access to and embargoes and all that.
I reckon it’s a blanket approach pushed by federal government, not an IBM pushed policy per se. But likely one they’re adding so they don’t get in trouble if it’s used for something.
