A company in California just proved that an exotic and potentially game-changing kind of computer can be used to perform a common form of machine learning.
The feat raises hopes that quantum computers, which exploit the logic-defying principles of quantum physics to perform certain types of calculations at ridiculous speeds, could have a big impact on the hottest area of the tech industry: Artificial Intelligence.
Researchers at Rigetti Computing, a company based in Berkeley, California, used one of its prototype quantum chips—a superconducting device housed within an elaborate super-chilled setup—to run what’s known as a clustering algorithm. Clustering is a machine-learning technique used to organize data into similar groups. Rigetti is also making the new quantum computer, which can handle 19 quantum bits, or qubits, available through its cloud computing platform, called Forest, today.
The demonstration does not, however, mean quantum computers are poised to revolutionize AI. Quantum computers are so exotic that no one quite knows what the killer apps might be. Rigetti’s algorithm, for instance, isn’t of any practical use, and it isn’t entirely clear how useful it would be to perform clustering tasks on a quantum machine.
Still, Will Zeng, head of software and applications at Rigetti, argues that the work represents a key step toward building a quantum machine. “This is a new path toward practical applications for quantum computers,” Zeng says. “Clustering is a really fundamental and foundational mathematical problem. No one has ever shown you can do this.”
There is currently a remarkable amount excitement surrounding efforts to develop practical quantum computers. Big technology companies, including IBM, Google, Intel, and Microsoft, as well as a few well-funded startups are racing to build exotic machines that promise to usher in a fundamentally new form of computing.
Quantum computers work in a way that’s fundamentally different from the way conventional computers work. First dreamed up by physicists 50 years ago, the devices do not handle information using binary ones and zeros. Instead, they exploit two quantum phenomena—superposition and entanglement—to perform calculations on large quantities of data at once. The nature of quantum physics means that a quantum computer with just a hundred quantum bits, or qubits, should be capable of calculations on a mind-boggling scale.
Rigetti is something of an underdog in the race. IBM recently announced that it has built a quantum computer with 50 qubits, and Google is widely rumored to have a device of similar scale. Still, Rigetti has plenty of boosters. The company has raised around $70 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent firms.
Having more qubits doesn’t necessarily equate to superiority, though. Maintaining quantum states and manipulating qubits reliably represents a formidable challenge.
