The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is hosting a webinar to gather insights on combining the functionality of classic and quantum computers.

The Imagining Practical Applications for a Quantum Tomorrow webinar, which will take place on April 11, is part of DARPA’s Advanced Research Concept initiatives to speed up technological innovation, the agency said Tuesday.

The agency is looking for near-term uses of integrated quantum and classical computers in defense, national security, and industry. The IMPAQT webinar will enable quantum hardware providers to share ideas with government and academic experts about DARPA’s vision.

“Building on successes of DARPA’s ONISQ (Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices) program, the webinar’s goal is to spark innovative ideas and discuss new concepts for making near-term intermediate scale quantum computers, as well as sought-after fault tolerant processors, practical and useful for solving real problems,” said Alex Place, DARPA innovation fellow and webinar leader.

Interested participants can register for the event online through April 7.

Hear government and GovCon leaders share perspectives and insights at the ExecutiveBiz Quantum Technologies Forum on April 5. Sha-Chelle Manning, chief of commercial strategy at DARPA, will deliver a keynote address to the virtual event. Register here.

A quantum detector developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech was able to count quantum data at a record rate of 1.5 billion photons per second.

The Performance-Enhanced Array for Counting Optical Quanta detector shows promise in the ability of quantum computers to exchange massive quantities of data despite long distances, NASA said Friday.

The detector was built with an aim to create a dedicated communications network to overcome distance barriers between the supercomputers. The network could have nodes that generate entangled photons in pairs to relay data hundreds or thousands of miles apart on the ground, according to the study.

PEACOQ is only 13 microns wide and is made up of 32 niobium nitride superconducting nanowires, each of them 10,000 times narrower than a human hair. The device is kept at a cryogenic temperature of minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain the superconducting state of the nanowires.

“Transmitting quantum information over long distances has, so far, been very limited,” said PEACOQ project team member Ioana Craiciu. “In the near term, PEACOQ will be used in lab experiments to demonstrate quantum communications at higher rates or over greater distances. In the long term, it could provide an answer to the question of how we transmit quantum data around the world.”

Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said he has two concerns with the video-hosting service TikTok, namely, the app’s capability to collect data and potential to promote influence operations, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Nakasone, who also serves as commander of U.S. Cyber Command and chief of the Central Security Service, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday about his concerns about who controls the algorithm and the large number of TikTok users.

In addition to potential influence, he cited the capability of the app to “turn off the message.”

TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance and has been under scrutiny over concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to user data.

A bipartisan group of 12 senators was scheduled to propose Tuesday a measure that would provide Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo new authorities to ban TikTok and other technologies in the event that they are found to pose risk to national security.

House and Senate lawmakers have reintroduced a bill that would preclude government agencies from using facial recognition and other biometric systems to address civil liberties and privacy issues and concerns facing marginalized populations.

The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act would prohibit the use of federal dollars for biometric surveillance systems and information collected through biometric technology, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said in a statement published Tuesday.

“Law enforcement and government’s use of facial recognition technology has resulted in reports of discriminatory outcomes that have ripped innocent people away from their lives, locking them up in jail,” Merkley wrote.

In addition to prohibition on the federal use of facial recognition, voice recognition and other biometric systems, the legislation would provide a private right of action for people whose biometric data is used in violation of the Act and permit states and localities to implement their own laws with regard to the use of such technologies.

Merkley proposed the bill with Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The legislation was introduced in the House by Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; among others.