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Quantum computing is the area of study focused on developing computer technology based on the principles of "quantum mechanics", which explains the nature and behaviour of energy and matter on the quantum (atomic and sub-atomic) scale. Wikipedia describes "quantum computing" as “use of quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computation”. While a standard computer handles data in an exclusive binary state of 0s and 1s, quantum computers use quantum bits or "qubits", which can take any value between 0 and 1. And if you "entangle" the qubits, you can solve problems that classical computers cannot. A future quantum computer could, for example, crack any of today’s common security systems – such as 128-bit AES encryption – in seconds. Even the best supercomputer today would take millions of years to do the same job. Entanglement is a property of qubits that allow them to be dependent of each other that a change in the state of one qubit can result and immediate change in others. more than one state during computation. Superposition states that qubits can hold both 0 and 1 state at the same time. According to Shohini Ghose, Professor of Quantum Physics and Computer Science, at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada "Quantum computers are not just a faster version of our current computers. They operate on the laws of quantum physics. It’s just like a light bulb compared to a candle.” Quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are both transformational technologies. Today, AI using classical computing enables "Artificial Narrow Intelligence" (or ANI). Quantum computing will significantly accelerate the journey towards "Artificial General Intelligence" (or AGI) imitating how the human brain functions and, perhaps, pave the way towards "Artificial Super Intelligence" (or ASI) which may surpass the human brain and mimic levels of self-awareness and self-consciousness. Quantum Computing Timeline It was the unorthodox theories of quantum mechanics, born out of the 20th Century, which were later to spawn quantum computing. The concept of using quantum entities to process data and solve complex problems, much like a classical computer, can be traced back to the 1980s - the era of the "God Fathers" of Quantum Computing. 1980 – Paul Benioff described the first quantum mechanical model of a computer, showing that quantum computers are theoretically possible. His idea of a quantum computer was based on Alan Turing’s famous paper tape computer described in his 1936 paper. 1981 – The next year, physicist Richard Feynman, proved it was impossible to simulate quantum systems on a classical computer. His argument hinged on Bell’s theorem, written in 1964. Feynman did propose how a quantum computer might be able to simulate any quantum system, including the physical world in a 1984 lecture. His concept borrowed from Benioff’s quantum Turing computer. 1985 – David Deutsch, a physicist, published a paper describing the world's first universal quantum computer: a way to mathematically understand what is possible on a quantum computer. He showed how such a quantum machine could reproduce any realisable physical system. What’s more it could do this by finite means and much faster than a classical computer. He was the first to set down the mathematical concepts of a quantum Turing machine, one which could model a quantum system. 1994 – Peter Shor developed “Shor’s algorithm”, which would allow a quantum computer to factor large numbers much faster than the best classical algorithm. Key Players Quantum technology is still at an early stage of development. The first commercial devices have started to emerge in recent years, capable of performing a few hundred operations with tens of qubits. This early hardware was already sufficient to demonstrate quantum supremacy by solving a specific problem intangible for classical supercomputers. Google, IBM, and a handful of start-ups are competing to create the next generation of supercomputers. The emergence of quantum computing might help solve problems, such as modelling complex chemical processes that the existing computers cannot handle. D-Wave Systems Inc., a Canadian company, became the first to sell quantum computers in 2011, although the usefulness of quantum computers is limited to certain kinds of math problems. IBM, Google, Intel, and Rigetti Computing, a start-up in Berkeley, California, have collaboratively created working quantum computers for businesses and researchers. Intel has started shipping a superconducting quantum chip to researchers. It has also created a much smaller, but so far, a less powerful quantum computer that runs on a silicon chip, which is not all that different from those found in normal computers. Microsoft initiated a well-funded program to build a quantum computer using an unusual design that might make it more practical for commercial applications. Airbus Group also established a team in 2015 to tackle quantum computing at its site in Newport, Wales. Airbus’ Defense and Space unit’s main objectives was to study all technologies related to quantum mechanics, ranging from cryptography to computation. UK-based Innovation Whilst the US and China may be dominating, the UK and Europe are not far behind. In the UK, £1bn has been set aside which includes a 10-year investment by the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme, which was launched by the UK government in 2013. This has resulted in more than 30 quantum start-ups including a national network of quantum technology hubs in quantum sensors and metrology (Birmingham), quantum communications (York), quantum enhanced imaging (Glasgow), and quantum IT (Oxford). Thanks entirely to a £93m investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the new National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) is being built at the Harwell lab of the Science and Technology Facilities Council in Oxfordshire. When it opens in late 2022, the NQCC will bring together academia, business and government with the aim of delivering 100+ qubit user platforms by 2025, thereby allowing UK firms to tap fully into this technology’s potential. Another major achievement is the launch of the world’s first cloud-based Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG) service built using an IBM quantum computer envisioned by Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) - impossible with classical computing. It’s great to see such a co-ordinated and visionary programmes in the UK right now. Quantum AI Quantum technology has an immense power. It will allow us to do computing tasks that are outside of the reach of even the best computers today. Artificial intelligence, which is designed to analyse huge amounts of data, could benefit from this, as could materials and pharmaceutical research. The term “quantum AI” means the use of quantum computing for computation of machine learning algorithms, which takes advantage of computational superiority of quantum computing, to achieve results that are not possible to achieve with classical computers, the following are some of the applications of this super mix of quantum computing and AI. This allows industrial and academic researchers to perform simulations for solving ever-more complex design and optimisation problems, and ultimately leads to the development of better products and services. Still, many economically, technologically, and scientifically relevant problems (e.g. computational chemistry, drug design, biological processes, route optimisation) remain out of reach for modern and even future supercomputers, assuming the computing power will continue to grow at the present rate. As a result, countless approximate methods have been developed over the years, characterised by various trade-offs between accuracy and computational cost. Benefits of Quantum Computing The following are some of the advantages of Quantum Computing that make it so desirable for our world. Quantum Computers will deliver enormous speed for specific problems. Researchers are working to build algorithms to find out and solve the problems suitable for quantum speed-ups. The speed of quantum computers will improve many of our technologies that need immense computation power like Machine Learning, 5G (and even faster internet speeds), bullet trains (and many other transport methods), and many more. Quantum computing is important in the current age of Big Data. As we need efficient computers to process the huge amount of data we are producing daily. I'd like to wrap up now with some Concluding Thoughts. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are today's latest buzzwords, and when you mix that with ‘quantum’, these terms become a "mega-buzzword”. The way forward may be summed by Brian Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. “Now is the time to start building the vision, the expertise, dedicating teams and resources” for quantum computing. The stepping stones to get there are building a Center of Excellence (CoE) around AI”. This will help make AI the focal point of an organisation’s efforts to become more agile and innovative. Additionally, Solis adds “it forces you to get better data, clean the data, and build expertise and key capabilities around the data. Complement that with a smaller set of resources and a Center of Excellence for quantum computing”. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thanks for staying to the end. Until next time. Keep reading, learning and listening.