Launching the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab (2013)

at first I read this and immediately thought that google had jumped the shark, but then when I realized that they are proposing to use quantum computing to make ANNs tunnel through local minima in converging on solutions, I think that's a really interesting use case - if quantum adiabatic annealing can be easily programmed to do this, (whether or not it has any sort of biomimetic relevance).

Posted 16th May 2013

Anyone here able to recommend a primer on quantum computing? I have a high-level understanding of the physics involved, but I get lost as soon as people start discussing the algorithms.

A good book on the topic for non physicist is schrodinger's killer app published last year. I found entertaining and informative. D-wave computers are adiabetic not gate based and are generally thought not to have significant numbers of entangled particles, this does not allow for exponential speed up that is required for Shor's but should allow for quadratic speed up.

The consensus seems to ever tipping against the idea that D-wave is a true quantum computer. I wonder if Google and others regret spending $10mil on the machine.

A little bit off-topic: Aren't quantum computers similar to the 'proposed' PCMOS analog computers based on memristors and spin torque oscillators?

The programming model looks the same, and the machine code is 'complex', so it needs to be abstracted just like in proposed probabilistic computers like DARPA UPSIDE and Synapse?

I think they ought to host a seminar with Hameroff and Penrose like really soon.

I recollect this being posted earlier.

so, what are the things that a d-wave system cannot do that a 'pure' quantum computer can?

So how worried should I be about this? Are quantum computers really powerful enough to give us strong AI anytime soon?

The problem with quantum computers is that you never know whether they are one or not.