smarterplanet: Google and NASA Launch Quantum Computing AI Lab Quantum computing took a giant leap forward on the world stage today as NASA and Google, in partnership with a consortium of universities, launched an initiative to investigate how the technology might lead to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. The new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will employ what may be the most advanced commercially available quantum computer, the D-Wave Two, which a recent study confirmed was much faster than conventional machines at defeating specific problems. The machine will be installed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and is expected to be available for government, industrial, and university research later this year. Google believes quantum computing might help it improve its web search and speech recognition technology. University researchers might use it to devise better models of disease and climate, among many other possibilities. As for NASA, “computers play a much bigger role within NASA missions than most people realize,” says quantum computing expert Colin Williams, director of business development and strategic partnerships at D-Wave.
“Today, Richard Hughes and pals at Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico reveal an alternative quantum internet, which they say they’ve been running for two and half years. Their approach is to create a quantum network based around a hub and spoke-type network. All messages get routed from any point in the network to another via this central hub.”
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“Thomas Jennewein and Brendon Higgins from the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, Canada, describe how a quantum space race is under way to create the world’s first global quantum-communication network.”
“D-Wave is currently investigating the use of quantum computing in understanding protein folding. Mr. Hilton explains “if we could understand the structure of proteins we would know what drugs can interfere with their activity.” D-Wave is also developing algorithms that can detect cancer based on x-ray information. This work is complex as machines do not work like a human brain—a machine cannot look at a picture and determine the problem the way that a human can. D-Wave’s algorithms work much more similarly to the human brain. Many health experts believe that in the next five to ten years, quantum computing will radically improve the ability to understand, treat and cure diseases. This technology will have a disruptive impact in numerous fields: machine intelligence, internet, intelligence, data security and many others. There is a need for new and innovative ways to leverage this potential.”
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“A team of international researchers have successfully teleported a quantum bit (qubit) over a record distance of 143 kilometers (89 miles), between the Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife. This distance is significant, as it is roughly the same distance to low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites — meaning it is now theoretically possible to build a satellite-based quantum communication network.”
“In the short term, the team are applying the technology to safe communications for mobile phones and computers, which would make online banking and internet shopping more secure. Phones could be protected against hacking attempts. […] The new circuits are compatible with existing optical glass fibre infrastructure used in broadband communications, because they operate at the same wavelengths. ‘The global communications network, including the internet, is powered by fibre optics which use light to move information at high speed between countries, cities and buildings,’ said Mark Thompson, deputy director of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics. ‘Our devices are directly compatible – in a sense they talk the same language.’”
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