Quantum Computers  

Researchers at Google’s Quantum AI Lab have confirmed the D-Wave quantum machine that it and NASA have been testing for two years has beaten a conventional computer in a series of tests.

Google's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab has announced that it has confirmed that their D-Wave quantum computer is much faster than simulated annealing — a simulation of quantum computation on a classical computer chip.  According to one writer, "If confirmed, this discovery could not only lead to iRobot-style artificial intelligence but also advance the US space program by light years."

"We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing."

Google and NASA partnered to set up the D-Wave test machine in 2013, sharing the purchase and hosting of the machine from the Canadian company.

"We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing," writes Hartmut Neven, Google Director of Engineering of the quantum hardware group on a company blog.

The team also compared the quantum hardware to another algorithm called Quantum Monte Carlo. This method is designed to emulate the behavior of quantum systems, but it runs on conventional processors.

Results of the research have been published in a paper available online.

Related articles

• D-Wave Systems Smashes the 1000 Qubit Quantum Computing Barrier 
• Google Once Again Shows That It Is Serious About Making The Singularity A Reality 
• Facebook Researching AI In a Big Way 

"While the scaling with size between these two methods is comparable, they are again separated by a large factor sometimes as high as 10⁸," write the researchers.

So far, algorithmic simulations of the quantum annealing processes have been much more effective than the first generation complicated D-Wave technology, but it is progressing at faster-than-exponential rates.

"Due to the denser connectivity of next generation annealers, we expect those methods will become ineffective," states Neven.

In our experience we find that lean stochastic local search techniques such as simulated annealing are often the most competitive for hard problems with little structure to exploit. Therefore, we regard simulated annealing as a generic classical competition that quantum annealing needs to beat. We are optimistic that the significant runtime gains we have found will carry over to commercially relevant problems as they occur in tasks relevant to machine intelligence.

More work is needed to turn existing quantum systems like D-Waves into a practical technology, conclude the researchers. "The design of next generation annealers must facilitate the embedding of
problems of practical relevance."

They would specifically like to increase the density and control precision of the connections between the qubits as well as their coherence as well as enhance the representation of quadratic optimization and other higher order optimization scenarios. Researchers at D-Wave and other projects, including other quantum computer projects at Google, are working on systems with larger and larger sets of qubits to meet these demands.

SOURCE  Google Research

By 33rd Square

Embed

 Quantum AI  

D-Wave, the Canadian-based company that is the first to offer a commercial quantum computer, has sold its second $10 million D-Wave Two system to a consortium funded by Google and NASA. The organizations are forming a laboratory to study artificial intelligence by means of computers that use the unusual properties of quantum physics.

Google and NASA are forming a laboratory to study artificial intelligence by means of computers that use the unusual properties of quantum physics. Their quantum computer, which performs complex calculations thousands of times faster than existing supercomputers, is expected to be in active use in the third quarter of this year.

The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, as the entity is called, will focus on machine learning, which is the way computers take note of patterns of information to improve their outputs. Personalized Internet search and predictions of traffic congestion based on GPS data are examples of machine learning. The field is particularly important for things like facial or voice recognition, biological behavior, or the management of very large and complex systems.

“If we want to create effective environmental policies, we need better models of what’s happening to our climate,” Google Engineering Director Hartmut Neven said in a blog post announcing the partnership. “Classical computers aren’t well suited to these types of creative problems.”

"Can we move these ideas from theory to practice, building real solutions on quantum hardware? Answering this question is what the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab is for. We hope it helps researchers construct more efficient and more accurate models for everything from speech recognition, to web search, to protein folding," writes Neven. "We actually think quantum machine learning may provide the most creative problem-solving process under the known laws of physics. We’re excited to get started with NASA Ames, D-Wave, the USRA, and scientists from around the world."

Related articles Ray Kurzweil On The Computers That Will Live In Our Brains  Quantum Computer Wins Head-To-Head Test  Researchers Connect Entropy To Intelligent Behaviour

Google said it had already devised machine-learning algorithms that work inside the quantum computer, which is made by D-Wave Systems in Canada. One could quickly recognize information, saving power on mobile devices, while another was successful at sorting out bad or mislabeled data. The most effective methods for using quantum computation, Google said, involved combining the advanced machines with its clouds of traditional computers.

Google and NASA bought in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, a nonprofit research corporation that works with NASA and others to advance space science and technology. Outside researchers will be invited to the lab as well.

This year D-Wave sold its first commercial quantum computer to Lockheed Martin. Lockheed officials said the computer would be used for the test and measurement of things like jet aircraft designs, or the reliability of satellite systems.

D-Wave's head, Geordie Rose wrote on his blog, "The quest to understand intelligence is one of the most interesting and important challenges that humanity has ever faced. It is a daunting problem. But so was building quantum computers, or even conventional computers for that matter. I believe we can apply the same principles we used to solve the quantum computing problem to the (much harder) problem of understanding how intelligence works. I don't believe it is outside our reach."

The machine Google and NASA will use makes use of the interactions of 512 quantum bits, or qubits, to determine optimization. They plan to upgrade the machine to 2,048 qubits when this becomes available, probably within the next year or two. That machine could be exponentially more powerful.

Google did not say how it might deploy a quantum computer into its existing global network of computer-intensive data centers, which are among the world’s largest. D-Wave, however, intends eventually for its quantum machine to hook into cloud computing systems, doing the exceptionally hard problems that can then be finished off by regular servers.

This month D-Wave also established an American company, considered necessary for certain types of sales of national security technology to the United States government.


SOURCE  Google Research

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square