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Saturday, July 27, 2013

Encode the universe in 300 qubits

Nature magazine reports p on the latest quantum computing hype:
Quantum computers of the future will have the potential to give artificial intelligence a major boost, a series of studies suggests.

These computers, which encode information in 'fuzzy' quantum states that can be zero and one simultaneously, have the ability to someday solve problems, such as breaking encryption keys, that are beyond the reach of ‘classical’ computers.

Algorithms developed so far for quantum computers have typically focused on problems such as breaking encryption keys or searching a list — tasks that normally require speed but not a lot of intelligence. But in a series of papers posted online this month on the arXiv preprint server1, 2, 3, Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and his collaborators have put a quantum twist on AI. ...

"We could map the whole Universe — all of the information that has existed since the Big Bang — onto 300 qubits," Lloyd says.
Yes, I am skeptical. If we could make one scalable qubit, then we could make 300 and encode all the info of the universe. It would take a lot to convince me of that.

The 300 qubit estimate is in this quantum clustering paper.

This John Kelly IBM video is also enthusiastic about commercial quantum computing. In 10 years you will know whether he is right or I am right.

1 comment:

  1. Quantum mechanically speaking, you are both right and/or wrong until your observation will perhaps have collapsed the wave function.

    ReplyDelete