Buckle Up, We’re Speeding to the Future of Quantum Computing
If you follow Trinity IT on social media, then you’ve seen us talk about trailblazers in tech who have invented or worked on supercomputers. These powerful machines have been the heroes of the computing world for generations, but we’re rapidly approaching a world where supercomputing is surpassed. Experts are predicting that within the next 5 years or so, quantum technology, like Quantum Artificial Intelligence (AI), will solve complex problems that even today’s most advanced supercomputers can’t.
For the vast majority of the world’s population, this is a technological advancement not only unimaginable, but incomprehensible. The new superhero of technology is on its way, so let’s discuss what quantum computing is, and what this means for the future of technology.
What Does Quantum Computing Even Mean?
People know quantum physics as a class in college that only geniuses are brave enough to take, and this is for good reason. For those of you who are not quantum physicists, the most introductory-level explanation is quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. Within this study is the theory of quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of matter and light, and which is at the core of quantum computing.
There’s a fundamental difference between how a quantum computer and a standard computer processes information. A normal computer uses “bits” that can either be a 0 or a 1. This means the computer is processing bits one at a time, and goes back and forth between 0s and 1s. Of course, with the modern computing technologies we have, this processing happens almost instantaneously.
A quantum computer processes its own version of “bits” called “qubits,” and these qubits are also either a 0 or a 1. The key difference, though, is that quantum computers can either process a 0, a 1, or both at the same time. This simultaneous processing allows the machine to solve complex problems much quicker, as it's exploring a multitude of possibilities at once. To get even more advanced, qubits can get entangled together, which allows the computer to know the state of one qubit based on its knowledge of the other qubit.
The science of quantum computing is still developing, but experts are claiming that quantum computers will be used to solve problems too complex for regular computers, or even supercomputers.
Here are some potential uses for quantum computing:
- Earth and Space Physics Simulations: For Black History Month, we highlighted Black trailblazers in the science and tech industry. A few of those people worked as human computers at NASA until eventually human computers were phased out as they were replaced with machine computers, and supercomputers. Soon, we may see a new transition with the introduction of quantum computers to simulate space travel mathematics and physics.
- Drug Discovery: Healthcare and pharmaceutical innovation is constantly evolving, and quantum computing could be the missing tool to make groundbreaking discoveries. Like we said earlier, at the core of quantum computing is quantum mechanics, which is the study of how matter (like molecules) behave. Quantum computers have the potential to simulate molecules and chemical reactions for the study of drug production.
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML): We’ve published a couple of blogs about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (read them here and here!), but those only address AI/ML at the current, non-quantum level. Now, experts are preparing for Quantum AI to roll out within the next 5 years. With quantum computing’s ability to solve problems quicker, this will speed up machine learning tasks and train AI models faster.
Quantum AI: What to Expect
We all use AI even when we may not know it - it has become so ingrained in our daily lives. Quantum AI, though, is quite different. It completely changes the game by combining the incredible powers of artificial intelligence with the force and capabilities of quantum mechanics and computing.
Big name companies, like Google and IBM, are already experimenting with quantum AI and preparing to roll out some usable versions in the near future. Of course, this advancement will need to have the infrastructure to support it (i.e. large and stable quantum computers) before it can break into different industries on a wide-scale.
The potential of quantum AI is limitless. It can upgrade regular AI by speeding up AI training time, improving optimization, and creating more accurate simulations. This advancement will very likely lead to new discoveries that we can’t even predict. For example, quantum computing may create new learning algorithms for ML that don’t exist with standard or supercomputers.
We are on the horizon of major technological advancements and it’s important for tech companies, like Trinity IT, to get on board and buckle up.
Elizabeth Casalnova,
(267) 396-7901
elizabeth.casalnova@trinityit.biz