Google Sets Quantum Computing Hardware in its Crosshairs

Eileen McNulty · September 4, 2014

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Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, in partnership with scientists from several institutes in California, has launched its hardware initiative to design and build new quantum information processors based on superconducting electronics.

An alliance between Google, NASA Ames Research Center and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab explores quantum optimization as related to artificial intelligence.

A post on their research blog on Tuesday points out, “With an integrated hardware group the Quantum AI team will now be able to implement and test new designs for quantum optimization and inference processors based on recent theoretical insights as well as our learnings from the D-Wave quantum annealing architecture.”

Joining the Google team will be John Martinis and his research group at University of California Santa Barbara which has made recent advancements in building superconducting quantum electronic components of very high fidelity.

Google has been indulged in artificial intelligence for a while now, and Quantum computing is a sure step forward in this endeavour; the problem however lies in the absence of requisite hardware to make quantum computing possible.

The Author

Eileen McNulty

Eileen McNulty-Holmes is the Head of Content for Data Natives, Europe’s largest data science conference. For the past ten years, they have written, edited and strategised for companies and publications spanning tech, arts and culture. With a core focus in journalism and content, Eileen has also spoken at conferences, organised literary and art events, mentored others in journalism, and had their fiction and essays published in a range of publications. They are passionate about amplifying marginalised voices in their field (particularly those from the LGBTQ community), AI, and dressing like it’s still the ’80s