Key points
- Useful quantum computers are currently 20 years away: Nvidia chief
- Demis Hassabis says AI can perform the tasks that only a quantum computer can tackle
- The advances of AI may have opened new opportunities for quantum computing
Islamabad: The fast advances in artificial intelligence have transfixed the tech industry and have put another transformative idea — quantum computing — in the dark.
It is difficult to focus on the far away and awaited benefits of quantum machines when the headlong rush of AI dominates the news, according to the Financial Times.
According to two of the leading figures in AI, quantum computing could be much further off, and of less importance, than many of the people working in the field prefer to claim.
Their comments have compelled the quantum computing industry into a defensive mode and revived a question that has been hard to answer: where is the line between popularity and reality for a supposedly innovative technology that has yet to produce anything of pragmatic value?
Useful quantum computers
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, this year, predicted that useful quantum computers were currently 20 years away.
Huang’s own company works closely with many quantum companies, including adapting its CUDA software to help researchers develop quantum simulations.
But it did not prevent his comments from hitting the stocks of publicly traded companies.
Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of GoogleDeepMind, suggested that AI could take on many of the tasks that only a quantum computer had been thought capable of tackling.
It is hoped that quantum machines will be able to model molecular activity in far more detail than traditional computers. That could pave the way for new pharmaceuticals or battery technologies.
According to Hassabis, however, AI running on computers is already proving great at modelling complex systems and could handle this type of task.
Real-world applications
Hartmut Neven, head of Google’s quantum effort, said this week that he was confident that “real-world applications that are possible only on quantum computers” would arrive within five years.
However, the advance of AI may have opened novel opportunities for quantum computing. Quantinuum — formed from the merger of Honeywell’s quantum arm with Cambridge Quantum in the UK — this week unveiled a way to use its quantum machines to generate extra data to train the big language models that underpin much of today’s AI.
Quantinuum’s work refers to a broader point about the interaction of quantum computing and AI: that the boundaries between the two fields are transforming as both evolve.
And it always seemed likely that the two technologies would work alongside each other, with each taking on the computing work it is best suited to.
