The Week in Quantum Computing - June 12th
Issue #140
The Week in Quantum Computing. Brought to you by Sergio Gago (@piratecto).
Quick Recap
What an interesting week, with AI polluting all things we do in quantum!
Look all the quantum companies now saying they do Generative AI or use algorithms to improve it!
"The Good" Chinese scientists set a world record by achieving a whopping 1,002 km quantum key distribution (QKD) through an optical fibre, pushing the envelope for a future large-scale quantum network. They have released their network and pushed on qubits as we saw last week. On the other hand, the Royal Navy has successfully tested a quantum accelerometer that offers GPS-free navigation, indicating a new era for navigation technology. And that is where quantum can truly help today. Finally, the Banque de France and Deutsche Bundesbank have proved the viability of a quantum-safe financial system with Project Leap, fortifying financial data against future quantum threats. IBM opens a quantum data center in Europe and Haiqu raises $4M in San Francisco (what a great name!)
"The Bad" - A great piece about the growing concern about the ethical crossroads that quantum computing is facing. As Australia prepares to tap into a $1 billion fund for its Quantum Strategy, questions arise about the implications of these technologies and their potential misuse. The use of quantum technologies and their implications on privacy, data security, and geopolitical dynamics need careful scrutiny to avoid potential misuse.
"The Ugly" - Well, the ugly this week clearly goes to IonQ with their paid piece on Forbes, claiming working on a quantum ML system that matches human intelligence. You can take it as a satirical piece if you want.
200 Data, Analytics, and Innovation Leaders Reveal How Quantum Computing is Set to Transform Financial Services
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The Week in Quantum Computing
Chinese Scientists Set World Record with 1,002km Quantum Key Distribution.
Chinese scientists have set a world record by achieving twin-field quantum key distribution (QKD) through a 1,002-kilometer optical fibre, marking a critical step toward a future large-scale quantum network. QKD allows two remote users to generate a shared key for encrypting and decrypting messages.
Link: https://ift.tt/O1pC8yM
June 05, 2023 at 07:31AM
Project Leap proves the viability of a quantum-safe financial system
The BIS Innovation Hub Eurosystem Centre, Banque de France and Deutsche Bundesbank successfully set up a quantum-safe communication channel that shields financial data.
Project Leap addresses the threat that future quantum computers represent to today's cryptographic algorithms, and thereby to the confidentiality of financial data.
The experiment's success paves the way for the partners to build a complete chain of trust for central bank applications, acting as a blueprint for the financial system.
Link: https://ift.tt/nphyj7W
June 05, 2023 at 11:30PM
IBM to Build its First European Quantum Data Center to Serve Expanding Ecosystem
ARMONK, N.Y. and EHNINGEN, Germany, /PRNewswire/ -- Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced plans to open its first Europe-based quantum data center to facilitate access to cutting-edge quantum computing for companies, research institutions and government agencies.
Link: https://ift.tt/oJi71aX
June 06, 2023 at 09:31AM
Haiqu raises $4 million in pre-seed funding to boost adoption of near-term quantum computing
SAN FRANCISCO, /PRNewswire/ -- Haiqu, a startup building software to enhance the performance of quantum processors, today announced it has closed a $4M financing round led by MaC Venture Capital, with participation from Toyota Ventures, SOMA capital, u.
Link: https://ift.tt/mbL3k1Q
June 06, 2023 at 11:31PM
Quantum prototype tested by Royal Navy offers the future promise of GPS-free navigation
Successful testing of a quantum accelerometer developed by Imperial College London may set a new direction for navigation technology. First announced in 2018, the self-contained quantum accelerometer device does not rely on external signals like GPS or other satellite alternatives.
Link: https://ift.tt/vRJAzIy
June 07, 2023 at 11:30PM
Quantum Brilliance Releases Open-Source Software for Miniature Quantum Computers
Quantum Brilliance's Qristal SDK moves into broad release for developing on-premise and edge applications for compact, room-temperature quantum accelerators SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, June 8, 2023/EINPresswire.
Link: https://ift.tt/QHwUD0Z
June 08, 2023 at 03:31PM
Rigetti Computing founder joins quantum computing-focused venture fund
June 7 (Reuters) - Chad Rigetti, the founder of Rigetti Computing (RGTI.O), joined quantum technology-focused fund QDNL Participations as a partner, the venture capital firm said on Wednesday. Rigetti Computing started trading on Nasdaq in March 2022 after a merger with a blank-check company.
Link: https://ift.tt/4dlvwzQ
June 08, 2023 at 03:31PM
Singapore unveils plans for quantum-safe network infrastructure
Singtel, and a SPTel and SpeQtral partnership, have submitted proposals to become network operators. Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat has announced the launch of the National Quantum-Safe Network Plus (NQSN+), which aims to delivering quantum-safe communications across Singapore.
Link: https://ift.tt/6nlULjE
June 08, 2023 at 10:30PM
Quantum computing is at an ethical crossroads
Released in May 2023, Australia’s new Quantum Strategy builds on decades of pioneering research. It will tap into a $1 billion fund, to help generate commercial outcomes and position the country as a world leader in this field.
Link: https://ift.tt/e60LX8H
June 08, 2023 at 10:30PM
A Quantum Leap In AI: IonQ Aims To Create Quantum Machine Learning Models At The Level Of General Human Intelligence
Classical machine learning (ML) is a powerful subset of artificial intelligence. Machine learning has advanced from simple pattern recognition in the 1960s to today's advanced use of massive datasets for training and the generation of highly accurate predictions.
Link: https://ift.tt/uCUd67m
June 09, 2023 at 07:30AM
Paper: Interpretable Quantum Advantage in Neural Sequence Learning
Quantum neural networks have been widely studied in recent years, given their potential practical utility and recent results regarding their ability to efficiently express certain classical data. However, analytic results to date rely on assumptions and arguments from complexity theory. Because of this, there is little intuition as to the source of the expressive power of quantum neural networks or for which classes of classical data any advantage can be reasonably expected to hold. Here, we study the relative expressive power between a broad class of neural network sequence models and a class of recurrent models based on Gaussian operations with non-Gaussian measurements. We explicitly show that quantum contextuality is the source of an unconditional memory separation in the expressivity of the two model classes. We use this intuition to study the relative performance of our introduced model on a standard translation data set exhibiting linguistic contextuality. In doing so, we demonstrate that our introduced quantum models are able to outperform state-of-the-art classical models even in practice.
Link: https://ift.tt/GYI4ZNt
June 09, 2023 at 08:30AM
Introduction to the ZX-calculus
The ZX-calculus is a graphical language for reasoning about quantum computations and circuits. Introduced by Coecke and Duncan 1, it can represent any linear map, and can be considered a diagrammatically complete generalization of the usual circuit representation. The ZX-calculus is based on category theory, an approach to mathematics which studies objects in terms of their relations rather than in isolation. Thus, the ZX-calculus provides a rigorous way to understand the structure underlying quantum problems, using the link between quantum operations rather than the quantum operations themselves.
Link: https://ift.tt/Z498chI
June 09, 2023 at 08:30PM
Research takes first steps towards realizing mechanical qubits
So far, only a handful of qubit platforms have been demonstrated to have the potential for quantum computing, marking the checklist of high-fidelity controlled gates, easy qubit-qubit coupling, and good isolation from the environment, which means sufficiently long-lived coherence.
Nano-mechanical resonators may be a part of the handful of platforms. They are oscillators, like springs and strings (e.g. guitars) that when driven, create harmonic or anharmonic sounds depending on the strength of the drive. But what happens when we cool a nano resonator down to absolute zero temperature?
Link: https://ift.tt/RxweKkC
June 10, 2023 at 06:30PM
Introduction to Quantum Singular Value Transformation
Quantum singular value transformation (QSVT) is a modern framework for quantum algorithms encompassing a wide range of applications from quantum search, to Hamiltonian simulation, to machine learning problems, and beyond. If you are willing to be a bit dramatic, QSVT has been claimed to provide a grand unification of quantum algorithms. In this post, I intend to give a comprehensive introduction to the subject.
I don’t think there is too much introductory material available so far, although I stress a great paper by Martyn et al. [1]. I would actually recommend it as the first read, instead. In many ways, my presentation here is similar and inspired by it. There are some distinctions, though.
Link: https://ift.tt/0iXWfjG
June 10, 2023 at 11:30PM