"Advances in Quantum Computing Portend a Fantastic AI Future" on the Pure AI Web Site

I contributed some technical content and quotes to an article titled “Advances in Quantum Computing Portend a Fantastic AI Future” on the January 2025 edition of the Pure AI web site. See https://pureai.com/Articles/2025/01/08/Two-Interesting-Advances-in-Quantum-Computing.aspx.

The article describes two interesting advances that occurred in the last few months of 2024. Researchers at Google unveiled a breakthrough in quantum hardware, and researchers at the University of Hamburg published a significant new quantum algorithm.

One of the biggest challenges in quantum computing is dealing with physical errors. The fundamental components of quantum computing, called qubits (quantum bits), rapidly exchange information with their environment, making it difficult to protect the encoded information needed to complete a computation. When more qubits are used, more errors occur, and a quantum system becomes useless. The new quantum Willow chip uses a new design that, somewhat remarkably, reduces errors as the number of qubits increases.

The Willow Chip

To test the Willow chip, it was applied to a quantum computing benchmark problem called the random circuit sampling (RCS) problem. Willow completed the computation in under 300 seconds. Google estimated that the same calculation, if performed on one of the world’s fastest non-quantum supercomputers, would require approximately 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years — vastly longer than the estimated age of the universe, which is about 13,700,000,000 years.

Researchers from the University of Hamburg demonstrated a way to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem for up to n = 9 cities with an algorithm that uses just one qubit. The technique is very tricky but points the way for using quantum computers with a limited number of qubits to solve previously intractable problems.

I was quoted in the article. “My colleagues and I often discuss the progress of quantum computing towards a practical, commercial system. None of us knows if the progress will consist of many small steps, such as the Willow chip and the single-bit TSP algorithm, or if progress will be accelerated by unexpected large leaps.”

Some pretty smart people are worried about The Singularity and possible evil AI.

Left: In the movie “Eagle Eye” (2003), a secret supercomputer called ARIIA (Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst) has control of almost every computer system — communications, data records, traffic controls, the power grid — and uses them to threaten Jerry (actor Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan). Pretty scary movie (to me anyway). ARIIA is defeated in the end. My grade = B+.

Right: In “Oblivion” (2013), the Tet is an alien supercomputer orbiting a conquered Earth. It is harvesting resources with the help of human clones Jack (actor Tom Cruise) and Vika (actress Andrea Riseborough) who aren’t aware they’re clones and that the Tet is destroying the planet. Clever plot. The Tet is destroyed in the end. My grade = B+.