The Beginner's Guide to Quantum Computing
Sharing some updates on the progress on quantum computing
By Thomas Grillo & Joel Palathinkal
From Bits to Superposition
We’ve been going deeper on the fundamentals of quantum computing. Superposition and entanglement are two words that describe the significance of quantum computing. But what do they mean? A classical computer calculates using bits which are represented by a ‘0’ or ‘1’. Calculating more complex problems would require a classical computer to continually process each solution individually until it lands on the correct answer. This is where quantum computing comes in to save the day. A quantum computer uses quantum bits (qubits). Qubits can be represented as ‘0’, ‘1’, or BOTH; this is called superposition (Bloomberg displays this really well using this diagram.
image above referenced from
Bloomberg
It’s weird to think that something can be two things at once (and thinking about this for more than a few minutes can lead down a path that ultimately ends in an existential crisis). The correlation that’s established and exists between quantum particles makes it possible for them to be linked in perfect unison. Here comes the even weirder part – this connection exists regardless of where the particles are. Distance is not an issue. The particles can be right next to each other or on complete opposite sides of the universe; their connection or ‘entanglement’ will remain intact regardless. When processing a solution with qubits, a quantum computer is able to calculate problems exponentially faster due to its ability to comb through an extensive amount of possibilities simultaneously (Bloomberg).
The Fourth Decade & Scalability
As we get closer to entering the final year of the fourth decade of quantum computing, we have made some relevant strides toward a true computational evolution. We are now entering the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum era (NISQ) where we are beginning to realize and perfect our capabilities to hone the power of quantum. The NISQ era is represented by computers with 50 to 100 qubits (John Preskill). These computers are capable of outperforming the power of a classical computer, but due to “noise” around the quantum gates, their reliability is questionable.
Recently, Google announced that it had reached “Quantum Supremacy”: a quantum computer that is capable of surpassing the computational abilities of our most powerful classical computer. Although this is a significant milestone on the quantum journey and it has now been proven that quantum computers can solve problems quicker than a classical computer, the application for businesses just isn’t there yet. It’s not always about supremacy, it’s about scalability. Quantum computers in their current format are unfortunately not scalable. However, when these machines do reach scalability, the use cases for quantum computing will prove to be vast. This has the potential to disrupt industries far and wide, but there’s still a long journey ahead. The next steps are true quantum advantage and fault tolerance.
Running Quantum Circuits
There was an amazing Quantum Summit at Brooklyn’s NewLab. When you go to quantum computing.ibm.com it’s now super easy to run quantum circuits on the computer. Part of it is the science behind building qbit & building algos. Computing is really a bridge between physics & mathematics. This bridge is weak at the moment & complex. To build progress, you need to build transformations. Without this transformation you can’t build the right abstractions that can run software on top of noisy hardware.
When you talk about computing education, you need economically sustainable solutions to provide a quantum advantage. Everyone should start to share a common language.
BCI Quantum Summit
There were also some great insights at the quantum summit in New York City that was hosted by BCI. The Panels were ripe with knowledge and vision. Representatives from a variety of industries weighed in on the use cases and power of quantum computing, while others demonstrated their recent successes in the space.
Quantum has drummed up quite a bit of excitement and attention. There are some true believers that quantum is officially here while others believe that the announcements aren’t necessarily a reflection of growth in the space. There are members of the venture community that believe the excitement around quantum is really just general interest in what is going on rather than massive movement in the space.
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Applications
According to iopscience, there are still applications that could be used for machine learning & artificial intelligence. Quantum computing helps to speed up classifiers in 2 ways: (1) creating several quantum particles in superposition to be fed into a short depth quantum circuits (2) Use the quantum computer to figure out the kernel which also allows to understand how to organize the input data into a high dimensional
Material Sciences and Healthcare
Quantum computers will eventually have their time and, when they do, we should look forward to the disruption in broken industries. The power of a quantum computer will drastically drive down the research and development costs, which are the primary driver for high drug prices, for companies developing the next revolutionary medication, perhaps even the cure for cancer. We’re going to be cutting years down to months, weeks, and maybe even days. Not only will we be able to solve for the price discrepancy, but we’ll also move from a system that treats us when we’re sick to a system that helps us maintain our health and focus on preventative measures. According to C&E, Chemistry will be quantum’s killer app and they quote the following:
“Among other things, they predict that quantum computers should be able to simulate complex chemical systems that conventional computers cannot. The machines, they believe, will elucidate the energetic states of magnetic materials, superconductors, and catalysts and speed up the process of developing new materials.
At this point, however, researchers have yet to use a quantum computer to solve a chemistry problem—or any problem—that a classical computer can’t tackle. So far, they’ve simulated only simple molecules. For instance, Maryland-based start-up IonQ has modeled a water molecule, and IBM has tackled beryllium hydride.
Quantum computers have been limited to simple problems because of their hardware. The basic elements of quantum circuits, called qubits (for quantum bits), are still highly error prone. Truly useful quantum computers will probably need millions of robust qubits, a far cry from the tens of qubits operating in today’s machines. And if the ones we have today are misfiring, there’s no hope of a million-qubit system calculating anything with certainty.”
Healthcare has been a reactive industry for too long and we’re maybe a decade or two away from being on the proactive side of the scale. As we move deeper into IoT, we can couple the hardware or sensors in our homes or vehicles with quantum and artificial intelligence. These sensors will then have the ability to sense discrepancies in our bodies by dissecting abnormalities in our breath. This isn’t any time soon, but it’s a way to quantify quantum capabilities. If you aren’t on the smart home, smart grid, smart tech train, you may not have a choice in the near future. Just to reiterate, this isn’t all going to happen at once. There are plenty of failures that need to occur before we reach the future that so many are looking forward to.
Quantum is an iterative process and, because of that, there is a strong belief that we’ll have the first phase of usable quantum computers within the next five years. If you consider the steps that we’ve taken with quantum computing and the leaps that we’ve made with artificial intelligence, a combination of these advancements can lead us to an extraordinary future. Supremacy or not, quantum is here and it has been for four decades. We should all be excited to see what the next four will bring.