Category Archives: Quantum Computing

It can be hard to find among the headlines but some news is good news.

Here is your weekly digest of whats going well in the world.

These are this weeks positive news stories:

1. Scientists have identified the brain mechanism behind memory loss in old age

If youve ever forgotten where you left your keys or accidentally told the same story twice, help may soon be at hand.

Neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins have been working with rats to investigate the parts of the brain that control memory.

They have discovered a mechanism in the CA3 region of the hippocampus that appears to be responsible for a common type of memory loss and might turn out to be our greatest hope for combating Alzheimers and other age-related neurological disorders.

The Johns Hopkins team has found that the mechanism is responsible for two basic, co-dependent, memory functions pattern separation and pattern completion.

Lets say you visit a restaurant with your family and a month later you visit the same restaurant again with your friends. You should be able to recognise that it is the same restaurant, even though some details have changed, like the people who work there, the menu, the people eating there, and so on. Your ability to recognise it as the same restaurant is the responsibility of the pattern completion function of the brain.

Now pattern separation is what allows you to remember, for example, which conversation happened when, so you do not confuse two similar experiences or patterns. Lets say you talked about love with your friends, and money with your family. Pattern separation allows you to remember who you had the conversation with.

What the Johns Hopkins team has discovered is that as the brain ages, our ability to distinguish patterns diminishes, and as a result our memory becomes impaired, causing us to become forgetful or repeat ourselves.

Concretely what happens is that the pattern separation function of the brain fades away, and the other function, the pattern completion one, takes over.

In other words, your brain is focused on the common experience of the restaurant, but leaves out the details of the separate visits, so you might remember you had a conversation about love, but be unsure who you had it with, your family or your friends.

But researchers noticed that some of the older rats they worked with performed their memory tasks perfectly, even though their neurons and pattern-recognising functions were impaired.

It's just like people, says James J. Knierim from the Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University. There's a lot of variability in humans in terms of their cognitive ageing and how their cognitive abilities can decline over age. So we see the same thing in our rat population.

Professor Knierim says that they want to turn all the rats, and subsequently people, into really high performers.

Something was allowing those rats to compensate for the deficit which we also see in those lucky humans who remain surprisingly sharp into their older years. If we can isolate this factor, the hope is that we can replicate it.

Is it just different strategies they use that they've learnt to compensate for deterioration in some of the brain function? Or is it the fact that their brains are not deteriorating as fast?

Identifying the memory loss mechanism could really help us understand what prevents impairment in some people and open the door to preventing or delaying cognitive decline in the elderly.

We know that this same region that we're studying is one of the first areas that is affected in Alzheimer's, explains Professor Knierim, so if we want to understand Alzheimer's and what it does, we need to understand how the brain ages normally.

2. The French village being lit up by the sea.

Living lamps are lighting up the small French town of Rambouillet, about 50 kilometres southwest of Paris.

Its the same natural phenomenon that allows fireflies to light up, and algae to glow at night when the water around them moves.

The lamps are the work of a French start-up called Glowee, which collects bioluminescent marine bacteria called Aliivibrio fischeri, which is then stored inside tubes filled with saltwater. This turns the tubes into fluorescent aquariums.

The goal is to create a living bioluminescent raw material to create urban furniture and redesign the city of tomorrow, to be more respectful of biodiversity and the environment, says Sandra Rey, founder of Glowee.

Mrs Rey says they are currently developing the first pilot project of bioluminescence urban furniture, which will be installed in the city of Rambouillet in the fall.

We are in the process of producing this urban furniture so that it can be tested in the field. And to then be able to, after this first pilot project, really deploy bioluminescence in the city of Rambouillet, but obviously in many other cities too.

The manufacturing process consumes less water than the production of LED lights and releases less CO2, while the liquid is also biodegradable.

Mrs Rey says Glowee works with almost 50 development projects today in France, with constructors, with developers and with municipalities directly.

3. We take a huge step towards a revolutionary quantum internet

Scientists are working on a groundbreaking new computer that will make the ones we use today seem like antiques.

They are using the mysterious powers of quantum mechanics, in a way Albert Einstein himself once deemed impossible.

Quantum mechanics could be revolutionary for modern life as we know it. Tasks that would take todays supercomputers thousands of years to complete could be performed in minutes.

But the thing is quantum computing needs another technological breakthrough to reach its full potential. It needs the equivalent of quantum internet a network that can send quantum information between distant machines without being connected.

It needs what Einstein called spooky action at a distance.

And a group of scientists at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has done just that, spooky computing.

This team of physicists used a technique called quantum teleportation to send data across non-neighbouring locations in a quantum network.

Up until now, researchers have only been able to send data between neighbouring nodes, but the new study represents what they call a prime building block for the future of quantum networks and the advances in technology it will bring with it.

4. A new gel can absorb water from desert air and make it drinkable

Pulling water out of thin air just became a reality and not just for magicians.

Scientists and engineers at the University of Texas in Austin have come up with a gel film that could offer cheap access to clean drinking water for people living in arid regions around the globe.

A third of the world's population lives in drylands, which are areas that experience significant water shortages, so this advancement could have a huge global impact.

The gel can pull water from the air in even the driest climates, and its as cheap as it is efficient.

The material costs around 2 a kilogram, and a single kilogram can produce more than six litres of water per day in areas with less than 15 per cent relative humidity. To give you an idea, Las Vegas, a notably dry US city that sits in the middle of a desert, has an average humidity rate of a little over 30 per cent.

And although six litres doesnt sound like much, the researchers say they could drastically increase the amount of water the invention yields by simply making thicker films or absorbent beds.

Pulling water from desert air is usually energy-intensive and rarely produces much clean water, but this invention is set to change all that. Its also easy to use and simple to replicate.

It's very simple. It doesn't require advanced equipment or something else. You just mix it. Its even easier than making a meal, jokes Nancy Guo, lead researcher of the study.

All the materials are easy to find, she says, adding that they were inspired by stuff in the kitchen, like salt, flour and sugar.

5. An EU plan to make solar panels mandatory on all new buildings

The outlook for Europes energy crisis might soon get a little sunnier.

A new proposal from the European Commission intends to make solar panels mandatory on all new buildings within the European Union.

The goal is to make solar energy the largest electricity source in the bloc, replacing reliance on Russian oil and gas supplies with renewable energy.

Following Russias invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission is speeding up their original green energy transition plans, increasing the renewable energy goals to 45 per cent of electricity consumption by 2030.

In 2020 renewable energy sources already made up 37.5 per cent of the EUs electricity consumption, meaning the continent is already well on track.

"The big lessons that we have to take from this war are that renewable energies are not only fundamental to facing the climate goal, but it's the best ally for the European Union for its independence and strategic autonomy, said Pedro Snchez, the Spanish prime minister, speaking at a World Economic Panel on energy in the Swiss resort town of Davos.

Theres still work to be done, however, and the Commissions REPowerEU plan and the solar rooftop initiative is introducing a phased-in legal obligation to install solar panels on new public and commercial buildings, as well as new residential buildings, by 2029.

If the plan is successful, solar energy will become the largest electricity source in the EU by 2030, with more than half of the share coming from rooftops.

As well as the obvious environmental benefits, the EU hopes the plan will help reduce energy prices over time. In its World Energy Outlook 2020 report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed that solar power schemes now offer the cheapest electricity in history and predicted that by 2050 solar power production will skyrocket to become the worlds primary source of electricity.

6. The Canadian chef helping immigrants into the workplace

Jessica Rosval has worked alongside triple-Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura in his restaurant Osteria Francescana, in Modena, Italy, for over a decade. Shes received many awards along the way, but her most recent recognitions are for her humanitarian work.

This year she opened a brand new culinary venture that helps women who immigrate to Italy to find careers and integrate into life in a new country.

Roots, the social enterprise restaurant she opened in March with her friend Caroline Caporossi, showcases the cultural diversity of Modena's immigrant women.

Rosval says that the menu is inspired by her chefs-in-training and where they come from. You know, the story of the trip from Cameroon to Modena or from Colombia to Italy.

Rosval says the training teaches the women participating the technical skills needed to be able to pursue a professional career in cooking, But also non-technical skills that really help in terms of better understanding Italian bureaucracy, culture, the history of Modena, the food culture that exists in Modena, which are all also very fundamental and important aspects of cooking in this new country.

Dishes inspired by Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria, Tunisia and Ghana are all on this seasons menu.

For example, Zaira is one of our trainees, she's from Tunisia and in Tunisia they make brik, which is a rolled fried savoury dumpling filled with a lot of different things. It can be interpreted a lot of different ways in Tunisia, but there is always fresh cheese in the original Tunisian recipe. But when Zaira moved into Modena, she started making it with Parmigiano Reggiano. And when she told us that story, we thought it was great.

Rosval says that sometimes the best ways for us to get to understand new places is by picking out these little ingredients, and tasting the food and seeing what the actual land is giving us.

And how are the Italians taking it?

We were unsure of what people's reactions would be. But it has been miraculous. We have had so much support from our community. We have had from the florists to the electricians to the plumbers, everybody donating their time, everybody donating their energy, their services. The restaurant is full every single night that we're open, Rosval told Euronews.

Besides teaching women how to cook and run a kitchen, Roots taps into a wide network of government agencies, small businesses and volunteers who help train the women in everything from how to open a bank account and manage household finances to workers' rights and dealing with Italian bureaucracy.

During this year alone, more than 17,000 migrants have arrived in Italy via boat, according to the UNHCR. Seven per cent of these are women, who can be doubly disadvantaged, both socially and economically.

Roots is part of the Modena-based Association for the Integration of Women, and just one of the incredible examples of local commitment to bringing these women into the workforce.

And if you're still hungry for more positive news, there's more below

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Good News: Big step towards quantum internet and a village lit up by the sea - Euronews

QuantWare and QphoX Partner to Provide a Way of Networking Superconducting Quantum Processors

QuantWare is collaborating with another subsystem supplier. In May, we reported on a partnership between QuantWare and QuantrolOx to provide machine learning based qubit control software for QuantWares superconducting processor chips. This time they are partnership with QphoX to provide ways of networking multiple quantum processors together into a mini quantum internet. This approach is gaining popularity because Rigetti is already doing this with their 80 qubit Aspen-M processor and plans to expand upon this with their future 336 qubits machine. Also, IBM announced plans to do this in the future in their latest roadmap release. The key component that QphoX will be contributing to this effort is their Quantum Modem, a quantum transducer that will couple microwave and optical photons through a mechanical intermediary resonator. Additional information about this collaboration can be seen in a news release available on the QuantWare website here.

June 2, 2022

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QuantWare and QphoX Partner to Provide a Way of Networking Superconducting Quantum Processors - Quantum Computing Report

Paris, Boston, Sherbrooke, June 2, 2022 - Pasqal, the global leader in neutral atoms quantum computing, has named seasoned quantum technology executive, Catherine Lefebvre, to lead North American business development for the company. The company also announced office openings in Boston (U.S.) and in Sherbrooke (Canada).

As Vice President, Strategic Business Development North America for Pasqal, Lefebvre will be based in the Boston office to help drive the companys commercial and strategic partnership efforts and serve as the primary point of contact for U.S.-based clients and partners. Pasqals local U.S. presence will allow the company to further capitalize on the tremendous market opportunity and to expand the adoption of Pasqals quantum hardware and software solutions by U.S. industries including energy, healthcare, finance and automotive, while deepening Pasqals relationships with U.S. customers.

Prior to joining Pasqal, Lefebvre served in multiple roles, including as U.S. and Canada Innovation Ambassador for quantum technology company M Squared; advisor in quantum technologies at Quebec Ministry of Economy and Innovation; and as Science Liaison Officer for Element AI (acquired by ServiceNow), a global developer of AI solutions. Lefebvre has a background in research with a Ph.D. in molecular physics and quantum chemistry with training in science diplomacy.

Pasqals Canadian office is located in the Quantum Innovation Zone in Sherbrooke, which brings together researchers, startups and investors to cultivate the local quantum ecosystem and accelerate the development and adoption of quantum technologies. Known as Pasqal Canada, the new subsidiary will allow Pasqal to collaborate with both academic institutions and industry to grow its business in Canada and develop new commercial applications in such areas as smart cities, energy and materials science

Strengthening our coverage in North America opens up immense new opportunities to leverage our neutral atoms quantum computers for real-world benefit across new regions, markets and industries, said Georges Olivier-Reymond, CEO and founder of Pasqal. Catherine is the ideal executive to drive this next phase of our growth, and we are honored to welcome her to the team.

Offering a broad range of full stack quantum solutions across different industries, Pasqals customers include Johnson & Johnson, LG, Airbus, BMW Group, EDF, Thales, MBDA and Credit Agricole CIB.

To learn more about Pasqal, please visit:www.pasqal.com.

About PasqalPasqal builds quantum computers from ordered neutral atoms in 2D and 3D arrays with the goal of bringing a practical quantum advantage to its customers in addressing real-world problems, especially in quantum machine learning and predictive modeling. Pasqal was founded in 2019 by Georges-Olivier Reymond, Christophe Jurczak, Professor Dr. Alain Aspect, Dr. Antoine Browaeys and Dr. Thierry Lahaye. Based in Palaiseau and Massy, south of Paris, Pasqal has secured more than 40 million in financing combining equity and non-dilutive funding from Quantonation, the Defense Innovation Fund, Runa Capital, BPI France, ENI and Daphni.

Website:www.pasqal.comTwitter: @pasqalioLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/company/pasqal/

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Quantum computer manufacturer Pasqal strengthens position in North American market by opening offices in the US and Canada - EurekAlert

Xanadus Borealis Processor and Classiqs Quantum Algorithm Design Platform Are Now Integrated with Amazon Braket

We had reported yesterday about Xanadus 216 squeezed-state qubit photonic processor and mentioned that it would be integrated with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Braket service soon. Well, in this case soon meant one day. The processor is now available weekdays from 15:00 to 17:00 UTC (11 AM to 1 PM EDT). As it is a different type of quantum processor based upon Qumodes, it will need to be programmed by Xanadus own Strawberry Fields software. As mentioned in the previous article, this device has demonstrated quantum supremacy using a Gaussian Boson Sampling (GBS) demonstration and it does represent the first publicly available machine that has achieved this. AWS has published a blog that describes the machine with a nice summary of the GBS experiment along with a short tutorial on how to program it. You can find the blog posted on the AWS website here.

Classiq has also announced that it has integrated support for AWS Braket in its Quantum Algorithm Design Platform. Braket is one of several backends that Classiq supports as shown in the diagram below.

The integration allows the Classiq platform to be used with any of the gate-based processors attached to Braket, except for the just released Xanadu Borealis processor. The Classiq platform allows users to program their algorithms at a functional level and then have the Classiq software develop an optimized program subject to hardware and other constraints. By providing a level of abstraction for the programmer this will allow them to be more productive and more effective in creating their programs. Additional information about Classiqs integration with the AWS Braket system is available in a press release located on the Classiq website here.

June 2, 2022

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Xanadus Borealis Processor and Classiqs Quantum Algorithm Design Platform Are Now Integrated with Amazon Braket - Quantum Computing Report

Scientists are working toward building the next evolution of computers: quantum computers. And recently, a team of researchers in the Netherlands made another step toward that future after they successfully sent quantum data to three locations in a network.

That development could lead to the creation of a quantum internet, an essential part of any future attempt to build quantum computing networks.

Cade Metz, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, wrote about this recent development.

Marketplaces Kimberly Adams spoke with Metz about quantum computing, what makes the concept different from todays computers and why this latest development with quantum networks involves teleportation.

The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Cade Metz: Todays computers store data in what we call bits. And in each bit, you can store either a one or a zero. With a quantum computer, you have whats called a qubit short for quantum bit is that it can store a combination of one and zero at any given moment. So as you string these qubits together, the possibilities for computation become exponentially more powerful, because each qubit can store both these values at once.

Kimberly Adams: You mentioned in your article that quantum computing also needs a comparable network to support it a quantum network, if you will. What would that look like?

Metz: Well, in some ways, it looks a lot like our networks of today. But with a quantum network, you want to be able to move quantum data. And thats a very difficult thing to do. If you have a qubit that stores both those values at the same time, if you look at it, if you try to read the data, you suddenly break the qubit. It becomes an ordinary bit where its either a one or a zero. So you need a new type of network that allows you to move that quantum data and keep it in that state without breaking it.

Adams: Right, because if you try to move a qubit through a system thats only used to dealing with bits, it breaks that qubit into bits.

Metz: Exactly. I mean, its just fundamental that you cannot copy data and move it in a quantum computer. So you need a new way of taking that data thats stored in this unusual way and moving it to a new machine.

Adams: So lets say we do have a network of quantum computers. The internet that we have now completely changed the way the world operates. What would quantum internet do?

Metz: One thing that we need to underline here is that quantum computing is still a ways off. This isnt going to change our everyday lives immediately. Its going to change the way scientists do their work. As they get more powerful, we might expand beyond that, but initially, this is going to be something that is used by companies and academic labs and government labs. But potentially, these systems can really change some important things. Drug discovery is one, right? [It can] help us understand the way the human body works and the ways we can address illness and disease. The quantum computer could potentially break the encryption methods that we use to protect our data. So in the shorter term, its best to think about it that way. Its going to change the way businesses compute, the way government labs and academic labs compute.

Adams: Thats how the internet that we have today started out, it was something that was only used by governments and labs. And now its being used for everything from, you know, posting pictures of your breakfast to crimes and spreading [disinformation] and misinformation. What happens when you layer quantum technology and quantum computing on top of that?

Metz: You know, a lot of people think that as we move forward, we will continue to use both types of systems in tandem, right? There certain things that a classical system will be good for and there are other things that a quantum system will be good for. Now, you can look beyond that. But Im hesitant to do that, despite decades of research into this, were still waiting for a quantum computer that can do something that is practical and useful that you cannot do yet with a classical machine.

Adams: Lets say we take something like risk modeling for climate change. Can you walk me through how differently the experience would go trying to do that modeling with the traditional computing power that we have now and traditional computer networks we have now, compared with a quantum computer and interconnected quantum computers in a network?

Metz: Well, that type of modeling requires, you know, enormous amounts of processing power today. If you really want to model a complex system, you have to take in so much data, and youre struggling to understand how all that data relates to everything else in that collection. A quantum computer, think about it as as finding shortcuts that allow you to better understand the connections between all that data. Thats the hope is that we can find an easier and more straightforward way to understand the connections between all those disparate pieces of data.

Adams: Talking about this almost feels like were entering the realm of science fiction. You mentioned things like quantum teleportation. What is that?

Metz: What you can do with two quantum systems that are at a distance is you can, as scientists say, entangle them. Even if theyre far apart, they can be entangled so that when the state of one changes, the state of the other will change. That strange phenomenon can be used to move data. A team in the Netherlands recently demonstrated that you can do this, not just across two distance systems, but across three. And that was an important step because it showed that we can potentially do this for many network nodes and move towards that type of quantum internet.

Adams: I think about how theres so much technology that we use every day that we dont understand. How important do you think it is that people understand quantum computing by the time we actually have it showing up in our lives?

Metz: I think were experiencing this now with another technology, driverless cars. I do feel like the general public for years did not understand this technology at all, what it was capable of and what it wasnt capable of. And that can be a dangerous thing. This is something that is approaching our public roads. In a lot of ways, its already there under test. You need to understand what that technology can and cannot do, when thats the case. And its good to lay the groundwork and understand whats coming and understand how that might change our personal lives and the larger way the world operates

Metzs article, as well as this explainer from Wired, provide good background on the concept of quantum computing and quantum mechanics.

If you want to learn more about quantum teleportation, check out this short video from The Verges YouTube channel, Seeker.

Last month, President Joe Biden announced two presidential directives related to all this. One was to enhance the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee and put it directly under White House control to feed lawmakers and the public information about the latest developments in the field.

And another was to address the cybersecurity risks. Specifically, the directive calls for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop new, quantum-resistant cryptographic standards.

By the way, those directives were released quite appropriately on May the Fourth. You know, Star Wars Day.

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Scientists have made another step toward creating a quantum network - Marketplace

Singapore is aiming to boost its capabilities in quantum computing with new initiatives to develop relevant skillsets and quantum devices. It stresses the need to do so to ensure encryption technologies remain robust and able to withstand "brute force" attacks.

The Singapore government on Tuesday announced plans to set aside SG$23.5 million (17.09 million) to support three national platforms, parked under its Quantum Engineering Programme (QEP), for up to 3.5 years. The scheme is part of the country's Research, Innovation, and Enterprise 2020 (RIE2020) plan.

Two of these platforms were unveiled today, including the National Quantum Computing Hub, which would pull together expertise and resources from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), local universities, and research institutions to beef up relevant skillsets.

Teams from CQT, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), and National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) would look to build international collaborations and train new talent to plug a skills shortage in the emerging industry.

Researchers at CQT and IHPC also would develop quantum computing hardware and middleware, including potential applications in various sectors such as finance, supply chain, and chemistry. NSCC would provide the supercomputing power needed to develop and train algorithms to be used on quantum computers.

A second programme, National Quantum Fabless Foundry, was introduced to support micro and nano-fabrication of quantum devices across cleanrooms operated by industry partners. Hosted at A*STAR's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, the platform would facilitate the development of products in quantum computations, communication, and sensing.

Together, both initiatives would beef up local talent and enable researchers to explore how quantum computing could support various industries as well as develop quantum devices.

The Quantum Engineering Programme also encompassed a quantum-safe network touted to showcase "crypto-agile connectivity" and support trials with both public and private organisations. Announced earlier in February, the project aimed to enhance network security for critical infrastructures and had roped in 15 partners at launch, including ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, Cyber Security Agency, and Amazon Web Services.

In his speech unveiling the new initiatives, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Heng Swee Keat said the country needed to remain vigilant amidst intensifying threats.

Likening cyber threats to a "cat and mouse game", Heng said efforts were made to stay ahead of malicious actors who continuously looked to exploit new gaps. With the cyber landscape fast evolving, he said quantum technology was a potential "game changer".

"Strong encryption is key to the security of digital networks. The current encryption standard, AES 256, has held up, as few have the computing power to use brute force to break the encryption. But this could change with quantum computing," he cautioned. "For some cryptographic functions, the fastest quantum computer is more than 150 million times faster than the fastest supercomputer. Quantum computers can solve in minutes a problem which takes a supercomputer 10,000 years."

This underscored the importance of quantum technology research, the minister said. "Our investment in quantum computing and quantum engineering is part of our approach of trying to anticipate the future and proactively shaping the future that we want."

With increasing digitalisation came greater cyber risks, he said, noting that Singapore must stay invested to stay further ahead of potential threats.

He added that the fabless foundry would tap the country's manufacturing capabilities to develop quantum devices, alongside industry partners, that solved "real-world challenges".

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Singapore ups investment in quantum computing to stay ahead of security threats - ZDNet

IBMs recently expanded its Quantum Roadmap. Its important, because it shows that if you arent developing quantum programming skills now, youre already behind.

Up until now, most of us were still thinking that we had around a decade before wed need to be competent in this space to remain competitive, but this roadmap suggests the need for these skills may be necessary as early as 2025. Building competence in a revolutionary technology that has little in common with existing computing concepts is going to take considerable training.

Lets cover the state of the market according to IBM and why you are increasingly exposed if you arent spinning up a core team skilled in quantum computing, as a hedge against its premature emergence tomorrow.

IBMs goals for 2022 are aggressive against the old timeline but right in line with the new one. They include:

Of these goals the most interesting to me is the creation of dynamic circuits. Dynamic circuits provide the bi-directional feedback of quantum measurements, which are used to direct the course of future operations. These dynamic circuits are critical to the flexibility of quantum computing and its ability to adapt to existing and future related workloads. These circuits extend into the hardware and are core to the future capability of quantum computing.

Second, of course, is the increase in quantum volume, which speaks to the capability and viability of quantum computing, and IBM and is on the critical path to quantum leadership when quantum computing finally rises to meet, and likely exceed, its expectations.

One very interesting part of this announcement is the emergence of quantum-centric computing. This is much like a supercharger or turbocharger on an engine but with a massively greater potential performance boost to existing high performance computing (HPC) and supercomputer platforms. This anticipates the creation of QPUs that will work in conjunction with CPUs and GPUs to create a level of performance unparalleled in modern times.

Focused on solving the worlds toughest problems, this new class of computers will be critical to both addressing current large-scale problems, like climate change, and future existential problems to humanity.

This wont be easy. IBM is effectively rewriting the rules surrounding the entire computing market, using quantum computing as the change agent. If successful, it could turn IBM into a powerhouse.

IBM is one of a handful of companies leading the charge to quantum-centric computing.

It has worked aggressively to develop, in parallel, both the technology and training necessary to advance this technology into the market and move it into the mainstream of computing. If successful, IBM will help pivot the market to this new, vastly higher performing technology. If the industry as a whole isnt ready for it, itll quickly fall behind.

Areas like classification and compliance at scale as well as the ability of governments to catch companies that arent compliant will increase dramatically, customer analysis will become more accurate, and predictive algorithms will become more accurate as well.

Companies that can deploy this technology once its ready will have a significant competitive advantage over those that cant. The time is now to spin up quantum computing expertise, so you know when and how to use this technology effectively when it becomes available.

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The Importance of IBM's Expanded Quantum Roadmap - Datamation

OneQuantum Philippines will host Reinvent your Careers with Quantum Computing online on June 3, 2002, at 7 p.m.

John Barnes, founder of Entangled Positions, will be the speaker. Asher Manangan and Bobby Corpus, both of OneQuantum Philippines, will be the moderators.

Quantum computing will impact the future of every area in Academia and Industry, so the need for a quantum-capable workforce is great. Join us for a career session in Quantum Computing, with John Barnes, founder of Entangled Positions and President of OneQuantum UK, and learn how to reinvent your careers and take exciting opportunities in this field.

John Barnes is a recruiter, headhunter, and community builder. Having founded Entangled Positions, and previously Profecta Associates, he is also President of OneQuantum UK and OneQuantum Europe, Special Advisor for Workforce and Talent to the Quantum Strategy Institute, and host of the Entangled Discussions podcast.

Deconstructing Quantum Computing

RSVP here.

OneQuantum Philippines is a local chapter of the OneQuantum global community. It aims to make the Philippines a quantum-ready nation by educating students at an early age so it would be easy for them to acquire quantum computing skills. For more information, visit OneQuantum Philippines website.

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PH community to host webinar on quantum computing - Backend News

Quantum technology has seen major advancements in computing, communications and sensing areas that rely heavily on optics and photonics. Public and private sectors aremaking significant investments in these architectures, which means bigopportunities for the optics and photonics community. OpticasQuantum 2.0conference will be presented in a hybrid format, 1316 June 2022. This approach will accommodate speakers and attendees from across the globe with in-person and on-demand content.

With five days of technical sessions, the conference will feature technical presentations byinvitedspeakers and contributed talks, plusspecial eventsand six distinguished plenary keynote speakers. Theexhibitionwill include industry-focused sessions and companies showcasing market-ready technologies across areas of quantum science and applications.

The plenary sessions are one of the most highly anticipated components of Quantum 2.0, and we are particularly excited to present this years line-up of visionaries, said Michael Raymer, University of Oregon, United States, Co-Chair. Each year, we select individuals who inspire us by making great strides in the development of mature quantum technologies that will allow us to build Quantum 2.0 systems capable of quantum advantage.

The conference will offer the opportunity to interact with experts in the field, form partnerships and discuss new technologies in the QIST community is a main attraction of the conference, said Christopher Monroe, Duke University, United States, Co-Chair. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact and discover common ground, and potentially build collaborations leading to new concepts or development opportunities.

Quantum 2.0 will present ashow floor programthat will includesix programs focused on technical challenges and exploring broader challenges facing the nascent quantum 2.0 industrial community. The show floor programs will cover the prospects and challenges facing quantum sensors, quantum networks,quantum internet and quantum computing.

The session on quantum computing will focus on the challenges of photonics in quantum computing looking at both optical approaches to quantum computing and the need for photonics in quantum computing to interconnect individual quantum processor units. The rapidly evolving quantum industry has challenges from workforce development to creating a robust quantum-related supply chain, to what it takes to create a new start-up company in the quantum industry.

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Optica's Quantum 2.0 Promotes Breakthroughs In Quantum Research And Applied Innovations - Eurasia Review

As an observer of artificial intelligence over the last few years at DSAITrends, it is fascinating to observe the dichotomy between the sheer amount of research and development in AI, and its glacial real-world impact.

No doubt, we do have plenty of jaw-dropping developments from AI-synthesized faces that are indistinguishable from real faces, AI models that can explain jokes, and the ability to create original, realistic images and art from text descriptions.

But this has not translated into business benefits for more than a handful of top tech firms. For the most part, businesses are still wrestling with their board about whether to implement AI or struggling to operationalize AI.

In the meantime, ethical quandaries are as yet unresolved, bias is rampant, and at least one regulator has warned banks about the use of AI.

One popular business quote comes to mind: We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

So yes, while immediate AI gains seem lacking, the impact of AI in the long term might yet exceed our wildest expectations. And new, powerful AI hardware could well accelerate AI developments.

More powerful AI hardware

But why the fascination with more powerful hardware? In the groundbreaking Scaling laws for neural language models paper published in 2020, researchers from OpenAI concluded that larger AI models will continue to perform better and be much more sample efficient than previously appreciated.

While the researchers cautioned that more work is needed to test if the scaling holds, the current hypothesis is that more powerful AI hardware could train much larger models that will yield capabilities far beyond todays AI model.

Leading the charge on the hardware front would be data center-class GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD, as well as specialized AI processors from technology giants such as Google. For example:

Stepping outside the box

There are research fields that could impact the development of AI, too. For example, the Loihi 2 is a second-generation experimental neuromorphic chip by Intel. Announced last year, a neuromorphic processor mimics the human brain using programmable components to simulate neurons.

According to its technical brief (pdf), the Loihi 2 has 128 cores and has potentially more than a million digital neurons due to its asynchronous design. The human brain does have roughly 90 billion interconnected neurons, so there is still some way to go yet.

Chips like the Loihi 2 has another advantage though. As noted by a report on The Register, high-end AI systems such as DeepMinds AlphaGo require thousands of processing units running in parallel, with each consuming around 200 watts. Thats a lot of power and we havent even factored in the ancillary systems or cooling equipment yet.

On its part, neuromorphic hardware promises between four and 16 times better energy efficiency than other AI models running on conventional hardware.

Warp speed ahead with quantum computing

While the Loihi 2 is made of traditional transistors there are 2.3 billion of them in the Loihi 2 another race is underway to make a completely different type of computer known as quantum computers.

According to a report on AIMultiple, quantum computing can be used for the rapid training of machine learning models and to create optimized algorithms. Of course, it must be pointed out that quantum computers are far more complex to build due to the special materials and operating environments required to access the requisite quantum states.

Indeed, experts estimate that it could take another two decades to produce a general quantum computer, though working quantum computers of up to 127-qubit exists.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore is stepping up its investments in quantum computing with new initiatives to boost talent development and provide access to the technology. This includes a foundry to develop the components and materials needed to build quantum computers.

Whatever the future brings for AI in the decades ahead, it will not be for lack of computing prowess.

Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose. You can reach him at [emailprotected].

Image credit: iStockphoto/jiefeng jiang

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The Powerful New AI Hardware of the Future - CDOTrends