Baidu is Searching for Quantum AI Advantage
+ Baidu, China’s leading search engine and AI powerhouse, recently announced Paddle Quantum, a quantum machine learning development toolkit. This was the latest in a series of steps Baidu has taken to marry quantum computing with AI since establishing its Institute for Quantum Computing in 2018.
“Quantum computing has become one of the most active research fields,” says Dr. Runyao Duan, Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing, Baidu Research. “People are starting to take quantum computing very seriously and are convinced by its potential. In particular, various technologies have been developed to build all the elements required by quantum computers and these are in the process of being glued together,” he adds.
+ Duan sees two additional challenges to the widespread deployment of quantum computing. “It seems that most resources in quantum computing have gone to quantum hardware,” he observes. The software dimension of quantum computing— quantum algorithms, quantum AI applications, and quantum architecture—have received far less attention. “This is simply not right,” says Duan. “Suitable software tools could greatly speedup the quantum hardware design and I would like to see more investment in quantum software.” Another challenge to widespread deployment Duan mentions is the need to solve many difficult engineering and technological issues before we will see commercially viable quantum computers.
+ Duan’s advice to technology and business executives is “to take action now.” First, they need to study and understand the basics of quantum computing. Then they should explore the potential impact of quantum computing to their core business. Finally, they should invest in creating “a small quantum computing group as part of their technology team, solely devoted to making the enterprise quantum-ready. The crucial job of this small group is not to develop fundamental quantum technologies, but to partner with other well-recognized leading quantum computing companies and access their quantum power by designing suitable interfaces,” says Duan.
Source: Forbes. Gil Press, Baidu is Searching for Quantum AI Advantage…
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