Quantum Matters: The 2024 City Quantum & AI Summit Wrap-up

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This is an edited version of the opening speech by Karina Robinson, Founder of The City Quantum & AI Summit, in the City of London on October 7th. Resonance was the Media Partner.

Images Pauliina Roots Photography

Welcome all to the Fourth Edition of The City Quantum & AI Summit.

What am I going to talk about?

Pisco Sours. The Peruvian national drink. Lift up your hand if you’ve ever had one.

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Not enough of you. Some of you have really missed out – go fill the gap!

A Pisco Sour is quantum.

Have it on an empty tummy and you will find yourself where we are now, at the Mansion House, a palace with naked statues and Corinthian columns, all at sea level in the heart of the City of London.

But you will also find yourself in an Inca Settlement called Machu Picchu, 2400 metres up in the Andes of Peru.

Simultaneously.

A Pisco Sour is also like The City Quantum & AI Summit. A unique mix of ingredients that makes for excellence.

What do we mix here? 4 things.

The City of London, which has been going for so many years that Lord Mayor Elect Alastair King, who just addressed us, is going to be the 696th Lord Mayor of the City.

Quantum, both local and global. The UK has the second largest number of quantum start-ups in the world. And the tie-ups between “friendly” countries is crucial to its development.

AI, which has been isolated from quantum, with firms siloing the departments. Luckily in the last year, we are seeing those fake walls start to collapse.

Karina Robinson — Pauliina Roots Photography

And finally, Defence.

A couple of words on Defence.

Firstly, we are living in an ever more perilous world. In addition to war in Ukraine, ever expanding armed conflict in the Middle East and the rising threat of China, Russia is planning to increase its defence spending by 23% in 2025.

Meanwhile, the head of the UK’s domestic intelligence agency, resorted to swearing when describing the threats faced by the country. “MI5 has one hell of a job on its hands,” said Director-General Ken McCallum.

The best offence, is defence, and we are sadly lacking in both to defend our fragile democracies from authoritarian, war-mongering regimes.

Secondly, to quote Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary of the US:

“When you think national security you might think guns, tanks, missiles, fighter jets. I think semiconductors, quantum, AI model weights.”

In fact, all of the above qualify as key to national security.

What we need, above and beyond anything else, is a healthy interaction between sectors. An ecosystem that supports resilience by combining government, the financial sector, Deep Tech and Defence.

To return to Pisco Sours, The City Quantum & AI Summit is the only conference that combines all those ingredients. Plus gender balance, accessibility, and its catch phrase: no lingo, no jargon, plain English only.

Where else could you find the former Head of the UK’s Special Forces in conversation with the CEO of a global bank; a Rear Admiral from NATO in conversation with a Dame of the asset management world; and the CEO of Europe’s most valuable company with the Chair of a national Space Agency and the CEO of a quantum start up?

But there is a challenge. This potentmix of a Summit has outgrown its bartender.

Me, Karina Robinson.

Plus my lovely 2-person team from Dynamic Events.

The momentum of this Summit must be kept going. The Summit itself must be kept going. Above all, the enhanced cooperation and outcomes of the Summit.

What does it need? It is essential to have an institution behind the Summit, a firm, a larger organisation, one that can build on the multi-year support of the City of London, NATO, the Quantum & AI worlds.

I stand here and humbly ask that you ensure the survival of The City Quantum & AI Summit.  

Karina Robinson

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