We recently connected with Christopher Chamberland and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

AI is revolutionizing the way we live. Productivity has been significantly enhanced in certain areas, and AI algorithms can accomplish certain tasks much better than humans can. With the advent of AI comes a cost in terms of resources (such as energy requirements) and having chips which are fast enough such that they can efficiently run AI algorithms.

At Extropic our goal is to build chips which are extremely energy efficient (i.e. that use much less energy than leading technologies) and which are built specifically for running AI algorithms much faster than what is currently possible. There are many applications for such chips, such as solving the energy problem, running certain algorithms on time scales that are several orders of magnitudes faster than current chips and many more. Our chips are based on the laws of thermodynamics and we leverage physical principals to achieve the low energy costs and faster time scales.

Christopher, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Well I started my career as a PhD student in quantum computing. I was trying to find a PhD topic that was in an area that I loved and was passionate about (which was quantum mechanics) but which also had useful applications thus leading to good career options. One day while taking a complexity theory class, it hit me that quantum computing was the best option suited for my goals, so I applied for a PhD at the Institute for Quantum Computing (part of the University of Waterloo) as soon as I got home. I eventually landed the position and completed my degree in 3.5 years. During that time I had the opportunity to work with amazing people from around the world and visited several universities, as well as spent nearly half a year in the Netherlands. I also had internships in the quantum computing groups at Microsoft and IBM, and landed a full time research staff position at IBM right before graduating.

I stayed at IBM for 1.5 years before being offered an opportunity at Amazon and Caltech, since Amazon also decided to start its own quantum computing efforts. I was the second employee to join the theory team at Amazon, working alongside Fernando Brandao, and got to see the team grow from a handful of people to over 70 researchers in the three years that I was there.

Near the end of my third year at Amazon, my friend from grad school Guillaume Verdon, reached out to me asking me to join his company in AI. Since the position was in AI I initially declined. However after some persistence, and the promise that our chips could help revolutionize the AI industry, I accepted and so here I am.

Since the two years that I’ve been at Extropic, we’ve come a long way. Our current chips hold tremendous promise to accelerate several AI algorithms while using much less energy, and I’m very excited about the future applications that we have in store. More details will come as we release our first chips to initial customers.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Changing fields from quantum computing to AI, while simultaneously going from a big tech company to a startup came with many challenges. For one I had to learn an entirely new field in a short period of time. The startup world also comes with many sleepless nights and long hours. After working tirelessly for a few months, I was able to write nearly all the IP for our company along with providing several architectural designs for our first generation chips. This did not come easily, and I recall many humbling moments given my lack of experience in the field. However resilience, perseverance and dedication to our mission is what allowed me to overcome such challenges, and there will be many more in the future.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I originally started my PhD at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver working in condensed matter physics, which is the physics of very large interacting systems and has many applications such as in the development of new materials etc.. During my time at UBC, I saw many incredibly smart people graduate with PhDs but unable to find a job. Many would end up pursuing careers in the private sector which were completely unrelated to their degree. I really didn’t want this to happen to me.

Consequently, I mustered the courage to tell my advisor that I was quitting the PhD program and would pursue a career in another field which had better job prospects. My advisor, friends and colleagues all thought I was making a big mistake given the success I was experiencing on my program. However my gut told me this was the right thing to do. On my last day, I couldn’t sleep, and left at 3am from Vancouver driving all the way back to Ottawa (a 6 day drive). Reflecting upon this now, I believe this was the best decision of my life. It’s what opened the door to my career in quantum computing and now in AI. This also taught me that it’s important to take risks in life, and not be afraid to follow your gut instincts!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chrischamberland.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chamberland.christopher/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-christopher-chamberland-a383926b/