The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has signed on with Amazon’s Braket simulated quantum computing service. The bank is eyeing potential advances quantum computing might offer in artificial intelligence, fraud detection algorithms, and cyber security.
CBA chief information officer for technology Brendan Hopper told the Amazon Web Services Summit in Sydney Braket is “an exact idea of what a company should be looking at doing … starting to use that kind of tech that’s out there” to run experiments.
CBA thinks quantum computing will lead to advancements for its digital ‘benefits finder’ and its personalization engine, which already incorporates AI and machine learning. Hopper said there are multiple use cases “where quantum probably will be game changing for banking and financial services over the next couple of decades.”
Big data and AI also power CBA’s fraud protection and security services. “We think quantum computing can really take that to the next level, in helping our customers stay safe online, and also … protecting their finances and accounts,” Hopper said.
According to Hopper, the bank already explored and is “continuing to explore financial services specific use cases” across portfolio management optimization. Previous experiments include partnering with California-based Rigetti Computing back in 2019 to run two algorithms on a quantum simulator. “That experiment showed that quantum computers definitely have potentially in that problem space of portfolio optimisation,” Hopper said.