Archer Materials (ASX:AXE) launched a quantum machine learning (QML) project to develop and benchmark quantum algorithms against classical approaches, aiming to improve the accuracy and efficiency of financial fraud detection, according to a Wednesday Australian bourse filing.

The team used a publicly available dataset of more than 280,000 bank transactions and applied data reduction techniques so it could be processed within the limits of current quantum hardware, while still allowing comparison with traditional models, per the filing.

The project, which started in January, has completed dataset preparation and is now entering the simulation and benchmarking phase, with initial performance insights expected by mid-year and a full QML prototype planned for year-end, the filing added.

The company's shares rose around 3% in recent Wednesday trade.