Google, NASA and D-Wave recently
released a video (see it by clicking on the link above!) explaining the features of their new common project: a Quantum
Artificial Intelligence lab which will aim to create one of the first commercial
quantum computers.
So what is a quantum computer? Quantum computers
are computation devices that make direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena,
such as superposition, entanglement, multi-verse or tunnelling (all mentioned in
the video) to perform operations on data. The main difference with “normal”
(digital) computation is the use of qubits instead of bits. Whereas a bit (i.e. a
binary digit: a digit of the binary numeral system and the basic unit of
information in computing) can only have one of two values: either a 0 or a 1, a
qubit can actually exist in superposition of the two values, having 0 and 1 at
the same time... This new type of computer will allow us to answer many questions
that can't be answered with current computers. Beautiful, but how will they achieve that?
Even if it is still too soon
for normal people like us to understand the power of these computers, the key
might be optimization. As they explain in the video, optimization is one of the
major obstacles in computer science nowadays, since even with today's mega
computers there are still some problems that we aren't able to solve because of
their extreme demands in calculation. For instance, they give the example of
the travelling salesman who wants to know which would be the shortest and
fastest route to visit a particular number of cities. There are so many
possible routes depending on so many factors (for example, 479 001 600
different combinations within 12 cities), that it would actually take hundreds
of years to calculate all of them if we work with a considerable number of
cities (above 20)…
The main aim of the project
is to improve machine learning, i.e. artificial intelligence, so we can develop more efficient processors that could be used in radars, aircraft
systems, smartphones, etc. An example of this “intelligence” would be one of
the latest features Google has been working on: infallible facial recognition, which is ostensibly
only a human capability. Since it is Google which is behind this project, we can
be very optimistic about the progress of the research as the American giant is cutting edge.
It is awesome that humans
have been actually able to create something that may answer the questions that
we cannot answer by ourselves. It might seem like pure fantasy now, but with
quantum processors we will eventually do some incredible things, like run
computer-simulated universes that are indistinguishable from our own real
universe, complete with simulated minds…
Article by Jesús Bujalance
