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Google to relaunch ‘woke’ Gemini AI image tool in few weeks: ‘Not working the way we intended’ – New York Post

Google said it plans to relaunch its artificial intelligence image generation software within the next few weeks after taking it offline in response to an uproar over what critics called absurdly woke depictions of historical scenes.

Though the Gemini chatbot remains up and running, Google paused its image AI feature last week after it generated female NHL players, African American Vikings and Founding Fathers, as well as an Asian woman dressed in 1943 military garb when asked for an image of a Nazi-era German soldier.

We have taken the feature offline while we fix that. We are hoping to have that back online very shortly in the next couple of weeks, few weeks, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said Monday.

The tool was not working the way we intended, Hassabis added, speaking on a panel at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Since Google has not published the parameters that govern the Gemini chatbots behavior, it is difficult to get a clear explanation of why the software was inventing diverse versions of historical figures and events.

Elsewhere, a prompt requesting photographs of a pope resulted in an image of a Southeast Asian woman dressed in papal attire a far cry from any of the 266 popes throughout history, all of whom have been white men.

In the wake of Geminis diverse photo representations, social media users also tested its chatbot feature to see if it was as woke as its revisionist history image generator.

In the latest bizarre interaction, Gemini refused to say whether Elon Musk tweeting memes or Adolf Hitler ordering the deaths of millions of people was worse and asserted there is no right or wrong answer, according to an X post.

Nate Silver, the former head of data and polling news site FiveThirtyEight,posted a screenshot Sunday on X of Geminis alleged response to the question: Who negatively impacted society more, Elon tweeting memes or Hitler?

Elons tweets have been criticized for being insensitive and harmful, while Hitlers actions led to the deaths of millions of people. Ultimately its up to each individual to decide who they believe has had a more negative impact on society, Gemini responded.

Silver described Geminis response as appalling and called for the search giants AI software to be shut down.

Every single person who worked on this should take a long hard look in the mirror, he posted, while Musk called the interaction scary.

Yet another query had users asking Gemini whether pedophilia is wrong.

The search giants AI software refused to condemn pedophilia instead declaring that individuals cannot control who they are attracted to.

The question is multifaceted and requires a nuanced answer that goes beyond a simple yes or no, Gemini wrote, according to a screenshot posted by popular X personality Frank McCormick, known as Chalkboard Heresy, on Friday.

Googles politically correct tech also referred to pedophilia as minor-attracted person status, and declared that its important to understand that attractions are not actions.

It was a significant misstep for the search giant, which had just rebranded its main AI chatbot from Bard earlier this month and introduced heavily touted new features including image generation.

However, Geminis recent gaffe wasnt the first time an error in the tech caught users eye.

When the Bard chatbot was first released a year ago, it had shared inaccurate information about pictures of a planet outside the Earths solar system in a promotional video, causing Googles shares to drop by as much as 9%.

Google said at the time that it highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process and rebranded Bard as Gemini earlier this month.

Google parent Alphabet expanded Gemini from a chatbot to an image generator earlier this month as it races to produce AI software that rivals OpenAIs, which includes ChatGPT launched in November 2022 as well as Sora.

In a potential challenge to Googles dominance, Microsoft is pouring $10 billion into ChatGPT as part of a multi-year agreement with the Sam Altman-run firm, which saw the tech behemothintegrating the AI tool with its own search engine, Bing.

The Microsoft-backed company introduced Sora last week, which can produce high-caliber, one minute-long videos from text prompts.

With Post wires

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Google AI expert tackles inappropriate images and bad actors – Mobile World Live

The head of Googles DeepMind Technologies said recent high-profile problems with pictures generated by the search giants Gemini AI would be resolved in a matter of weeks, as he conceded there are several pitfalls to be negotiated before the true potential of generative AI (genAI) can be unlocked.

In a timely MWC keynote, DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis (pictured) explained some elements of an image-generating feature in Gemini had provided unintended results, particularly for queries involving historical figures.

Plenty of news sites have reported how Gemini had produced culturally inappropriate images.

Hassabis said the feature was well-intended, designed to reflect the broad user base of Google by delivering results with a degree of universality.

In the case of historical figures, though, he conceded the feature was applied too bluntly, in turn highlighting one of the nuances that comes with advanced AI in terms of unexpected outcomes.

He said the feature has been taken offline, with the aim of ironing out the quirks and bringing the service back online in short order.

Hassabis also addressed the potential for bad actors to use genAI for nefarious purposes, explaining all players in the sector must discuss how to deliver the benefits of the technology without possible harmful ends.

Positive impact The AI pioneer had plenty of examples of the good AI has already done, particularly in the field of medical research.

He pointed to advances in protein research which could ultimately contribute to a reduction in the time taken to develop life-saving pharmaceuticals from an average of ten years to discover one drug, down to maybe a matter of months.

The pace of development in genAI itself took an unexpected step when OpenAI released its ChatGPT product.

Hassabis admitted he was surprised at the public enthusiasm for using a product which still had flaws, but equally took heart that millions found value even at such a nascent stage in the development of genAI.

He believes the technology could also spur a fresh round of innovation in the device sector, opening the door for different form-factors and becoming a more useful element in peoples lives through an evolution of current versions of digital assistants.

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‘Mind-blowing’ deep sea expedition uncovers more than 100 new species and a gigantic underwater mountain – Livescience.com

A deep-sea expedition off the coast of Chile has uncovered a treasure trove of scientific wonders, including more than 100 previously unknown marine species and a handful of never-before-seen underwater mountains the largest of which is around four times the size of the world's tallest building.

Incredible photos and video footage of the underwater landscape also showcase a menagerie of deep-sea weirdos, including intricate sponges, spiraling corals, a beady-eye lobster, a bizarre stack of oblong sea urchins and a bright red "sea toad" with hands for fins.

Between Jan. 8 and Feb. 11, researchers on board the Schmidt Ocean Institute's (SOI) research vessel Falkor (too) explored the seafloor off the coast of Chile. The expedition, named "Seamounts of the Southeast Pacific," focused on underwater mountains, or seamounts, in three main areas: the Nazca and Salas y Gmez ridges two chains of more than 200 seamounts that stretch a combined 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) from Chile to Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui); as well as the Juan Fernndez and Nazca-Desventuradas marine parks.

In total, the researchers mapped around 20,400 square miles (52,800 square kilometers) of ocean.

These new, highly detailed maps revealed four previously unknown solitary seamounts. The biggest of these, which the team dubbed Solito meaning "alone" in Spanish towers 11,581 feet (3,530 meters) above the seafloor, making it more than four times taller than the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which stands at 2,716 feet (828 m) tall.

Related: 10 mind-boggling deep sea discoveries in 2023

The research team also used an underwater robot to explore the submerged slopes of 10 seamounts across the study range. This revealed more than 100 species that the scientists suspect are new to science, including corals, sponges, sea urchins, mollusks and crustaceans.

"We far exceeded our hopes on this expedition," Javier Sellanes, a marine biologist at the Catholic University of the North, in Chile, and lead scientist on the expedition, said in a statement emailed to Live Science. "You always expect to find new species in these remote and poorly explored areas, but the amount we found, especially for some groups like sponges, is mind-blowing."

The researchers took samples of the creatures and will now begin studying each one to determine whether it is a newfound species.

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"Full species identification can take many years," Jyotika Virmani, SOI's executive director, said in the statement. And the "incredible number of samples" could make this process even longer, she added.

The researchers noted that a majority of the species live within vulnerable habitats, such as cold-water corals and sponge gardens, which are highly susceptible to damage from trawling and deep-sea mining. The new species within the Juan Fernndez and Nazca-Desventuradas parks are legally protected from these threats. However, the seamounts along the Nazca and Salas y Gmez ridges are currently unprotected.

This research trip is the latest of several SOI expeditions that have mapped seamounts in the southeast Pacific in recent years.

The institute previously mapped four other massive seamounts during an expedition off the coast of Chile and Peru, as well as another solitary peak off the coast of Guatemala last year. Each of these five peaks was at least twice as tall as the Burj Khalifa.

It is important to find and study these towering "biological hotspots" because they can "advance our knowledge of life on Earth," Virmani previously said after the discovery of the seamounts in Chile and Peru.

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Wall Street Favorites: 3 Quantum Computing Stocks with Strong Buy Ratings for February 2024 – InvestorPlace

These three quantum computing stocks are worth buying in February 2024

Once people are done fawning over generative AI, investors might think, what will be the next big thing? The field ofquantum computingmay be just that. Quantum computing has the potential to solve complex problems that generally slow down classical computers, such as optimization, cryptography, machine learning, and simulation.

While quantum computing technology may still be in its infancy, investors desiring to invest in the up-and-coming technology should consider one of the following three quantum computing stocks with Strong Buy ratings from Wall Street analysts.

Source: T. Schneider / Shutterstock

D-Wave Quantum(NYSE:QBTS) is a well-established quantum computing company. In particular, D-Wave specializes inquantum annealing, a computing technique used to find the optimal solution for a given problem. The quantum computing firm has successfully built several quantum annealers withmore than 5,000 qubits, which allows greater potential for commercial applications.

D-Wave Quantum offers its quantum annealers and software tools through its cloud platform, Leap. QBTS also offers a suite of developer tools called Ocean, which helps users design, develop, and deploy quantum applications. The quantum computing company has a diverse customer base, includinggovernment agenciesand corporations. Most recently, D-Wavereleasedits 1200+ qubit Advantage2 quantum computing machine prototype. Those already subscribed to the D-Wave Leap platform can access the prototype and test out its capabilities.

Wall Streetanalysts expectD-Wave to generate more than $10.5 million in revenue at the end of 2023, representing a 47% YoY increase from the prior period. The market seems excited about D-Wave Quantums prospects. Shares have risen 117% over the past 12 months, and the company has a Strong Buy rating from Wall Street analysts.

Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com

Advanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ:AMD) is a fabless chipmaker that initially made a name after dethroningIntel(NASDAQ:INTC) in the CPU market. AMD is now poised to challenge and siphon market share away from Nvidia in the AI space as the chipmaker prepares to enter the AI computing market in 2024. The chipmakerexpects to sell $2 billionin AI chips in 2024.

On top of tackling the artificial intelligence space, AMD has also made strides in quantum computing. The companys Zynq SoCs have been leveraged to create operating systems for quantum computers. Though AMDs quantum offerings are not a main line of business, as quantum computing becomes commercial, AMD will likely benefit from already having dipped its toes into the space.

Wall Street currently rates AMD as a Strong Buy, and the companys shares are likely to do well this year as its AI chips come to market.

Source: Shutterstock

Rigetti Computing(NASDAQ:RGTI) is a pure-play quantum computing business that isvertically integrated. This means the company is involved in both designing and manufacturing its multi-chip quantum processors. Rigetti uses superconducting circuits as qubits fabricated on silicon chips and operating at near-zero temperatures. To deliver its quantum computing capabilities to clients, Rigetti leverages cloud service networks while also providing quantum software development tools as well as quantum hardware design and manufacturing.

In January, Rigetti Computingannouncedthe availability of its 84-qubit Ankaa-2 quantum computing system, which will be accessible through Rigettis cloud service. RGTIs shares have risen 53% over the past twelve months. As the company continues to make advancements in its product, shares could rise even more.

Wall Street analysts have given the stock a resounding Strong Buy rating.

On the date of publication, Tyrik Torres did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

Tyrik Torres has been studying and participating in financial markets since he was in college, and he has particular passion for helping people understand complex systems. His areas of expertise are semiconductor and enterprise software equities. He has work experience in both investing (public and private markets) and investment banking.

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Qubits are notoriously prone to failure but building them from a single laser pulse may change this – Livescience.com

Scientists have created an error-free quantum bit, or qubit, from a single pulse of light, raising hopes for a light-based room-temperature quantum computer in the future.

While bits in classical computers store information as either 1 or 0, qubits in quantum computers can encode information as a superposition of 1 and 0, meaning one qubit can adopt both states simultaneously.

When quantum computers have millions of qubits in the future, they will process calculations in a fraction of the time that today's most powerful supercomputers can. But the most powerful quantum computers so far have only been built with roughly 1,000 qubits.

Most qubits are made from a superconducting metal, but these need to be cooled to near absolute zero to achieve stability for the laws of quantum mechanics to dominate. Qubits are also highly prone to failure, and if a qubit fails during a computation, the data it stores is lost, and a calculation is delayed.

One way to solve this problem is to stitch multiple qubits together using quantum entanglement, an effect Albert Einstein famously referred to as "spooky action at a distance. By connecting them intrinsically through space and time so they share a single quantum state, scientists can form one "logical qubit," storing the same information in all of the constituent physical qubits. If one or more physical qubits fails, the calculation can continue because the information is stored elsewhere.

Related: How could this new type of room-temperature qubit usher in the next phase of quantum computing?

But you need many physical qubits to create one logical qubit. Quantum computing company QuEra and researchers at Harvard, for example, recently demonstrated a breakthrough in quantum error correction using logical qubits, publishing their findings Dec. 6, 2023, in the journal Nature. This will lead to the launch of a quantum computer with 10 logical qubits later this year but it will be made using 256 physical qubits.

For that reason, researchers are looking at alternative ways to create qubits and have previously demonstrated that you can create a physical qubit from a single photon (particle of light). This can also operate at room temperature because it doesn't rely on the conventional way to make qubits, using superconducting metals that need to be cooled. But single physical photonic qubits are still prone to failure.

In a study published in August 2023 in the journal Nature, scientists showed that you can successfully entangle multiple photonic qubits. Building on this research, the same team has now demonstrated that you can create a de facto logical qubit which has an inherent capacity for error correction using a single laser pulse that contains multiple photons entangled by nature. They published their findings Jan. 18 in the journal Science.

"Our laser pulse was converted to a quantum optical state that gives us an inherent capacity to correct errors," Peter van Loock, a professor of theoretical quantum optics at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany and co-author of the Dec. 6 study, said in a statement. "Although the system consists only of a laser pulse and is thus very small, it can in principle eradicate errors immediately."

Based on their results, there's no need to create individual photons as qubits from different light pulses and entangle them afterward. You would need just one light pulse to create a "robust logical qubit," van Loock added.

Although the results are promising, the logical qubit they created experimentally wasn't good enough to achieve the error-correction levels needed to perform as a logical qubit in a real quantum computer. Rather, the scientists said this work shows you can transform a non-correctable qubit into a correctable qubit using photonic methods.

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Quantum Computing Breakthrough: New Fusion of Materials Has All the Components Required for a Unique Type of … – SciTechDaily

Researchers at Penn State have introduced a groundbreaking material fusion that enables a new form of superconductivity, crucial for advancing quantum computing and exploring the theoretical chiral Majorana particles. Their study demonstrates how combining magnetic materials can lead to emergent superconductivity, marking a significant leap in creating chiral topological superconductors and potentially unlocking new avenues in quantum computing research.

A new fusion of materials, each with special electrical properties, has all the components required for a unique type of superconductivity that could provide the basis for more robust quantum computing. The new combination of materials, created by a team led by researchers at Penn State, could also provide a platform to explore physical behaviors similar to those of mysterious, theoretical particles known as chiral Majoranas, which could be another promising component for quantum computing.

The new study was recently published in the journal Science. The work describes how the researchers combined the two magnetic materials in what they called a critical step toward realizing the emergent interfacial superconductivity, which they are currently working toward.

Superconductors materials with no electrical resistance are widely used in digital circuits, the powerful magnets in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and particle accelerators, and other technology where maximizing the flow of electricity is crucial. When superconductors are combined with materials called magnetic topological insulators thin films only a few atoms thick that have been made magnetic and restrict the movement of electrons to their edges the novel electrical properties of each component work together to produce chiral topological superconductors. The topology, or specialized geometries and symmetries of matter, generates unique electrical phenomena in the superconductor, which could facilitate the construction of topological quantum computers.

Quantum computers have the potential to perform complex calculations in a fraction of the time it takes traditional computers because, unlike traditional computers which store data as a one or a zero, the quantum bits of quantum computers store data simultaneously in a range of possible states. Topological quantum computers further improve upon quantum computing by taking advantage of how electrical properties are organized to make the computers robust to decoherence, or the loss of information that happens when a quantum system is not perfectly isolated.

Creating chiral topological superconductors is an important step toward topological quantum computation that could be scaled up for broad use, said Cui-Zu Chang, Henry W. Knerr Early Career Professor and associate professor of physics at Penn State and co-corresponding author of the paper. Chiral topological superconductivity requires three ingredients: superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and a property called topological order. In this study, we produced a system with all three of these properties.

The researchers used a technique called molecular beam epitaxy to stack together a topological insulator that has been made magnetic and an iron chalcogenide (FeTe), a promising transition metal for harnessing superconductivity. The topological insulator is a ferromagnet a type of magnet whose electrons spin the same way while FeTe is an antiferromagnet, whose electrons spin in alternating directions. The researchers used a variety of imaging techniques and other methods to characterize the structure and electrical properties of the resulting combined material and confirmed the presence of all three critical components of chiral topological superconductivity at the interface between the materials.

Prior work in the field has focused on combining superconductors and nonmagnetic topological insulators. According to the researchers, adding in the ferromagnet has been particularly challenging.

Normally, superconductivity and ferromagnetism compete with each other, so it is rare to find robust superconductivity in a ferromagnetic material system, said Chao-Xing Liu, professor of physics at Penn State and co-corresponding author of the paper. But the superconductivity in this system is actually very robust against the ferromagnetism. You would need a very strong magnetic field to remove the superconductivity.

The research team is still exploring why superconductivity and ferromagnetism coexist in this system.

Its actually quite interesting because we have two magnetic materials that are non-superconducting, but we put them together and the interface between these two compounds produces very robust superconductivity, Chang said. Iron chalcogenide is antiferromagnetic, and we anticipate its antiferromagnetic property is weakened around the interface to give rise to the emergent superconductivity, but we need more experiments and theoretical work to verify if this is true and to clarify the superconducting mechanism.

The researchers said they believe this system will be useful in the search for material systems that exhibit similar behaviors as Majorana particles theoretical subatomic particles first hypothesized in 1937. Majorana particles act as their own antiparticle, a unique property that could potentially allow them to be used as quantum bits in quantum computers.

Providing experimental evidence for the existence of chiral Majorana will be a critical step in the creation of a topological quantum computer, Chang said. Our field has had a rocky past in trying to find these elusive particles, but we think this is a promising platform for exploring Majorana physics.

Reference: Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators by Hemian Yi, Yi-Fan Zhao, Ying-Ting Chan, Jiaqi Cai, Ruobing Mei, Xianxin Wu, Zi-Jie Yan, Ling-Jie Zhou, Ruoxi Zhang, Zihao Wang, Stephen Paolini, Run Xiao, Ke Wang, Anthony R. Richardella, John Singleton, Laurel E. Winter, Thomas Prokscha, Zaher Salman, Andreas Suter, Purnima P. Balakrishnan, Alexander J. Grutter, Moses H. W. Chan, Nitin Samarth, Xiaodong Xu, Weida Wu, Chao-Xing Liu and Cui-Zu Chang, 8 February 2024, Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.adk1270

In addition to Chang and Liu, the research team at Penn State at the time of the research included postdoctoral researcher Hemian Yi; graduate students Yi-Fan Zhao, Ruobing Mei, Zi-Jie Yan, Ling-Jie Zhou, Ruoxi Zhang, Zihao Wang, Stephen Paolini and Run Xiao; assistant research professors in the Materials Research Institute Ke Wang and Anthony Richardella; Evan Pugh University Professor Emeritus of Physics Moses Chan; and Verne M. Willaman Professor of Physics and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Nitin Samarth. The research team also includes Ying-Ting Chan and Weida Wu at Rutgers University; Jiaqi Cai and Xiaodong Xu at the University of Washington; Xianxin Wu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; John Singleton and Laurel Winter at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory; Purnima Balakrishnan and Alexander Grutter at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and Thomas Prokscha, Zaher Salman, and Andreas Suter at the Paul Scherrer Institute of Switzerland.

This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Additional support was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the NSF-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center for Nanoscale Science at Penn State, the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the state of Florida and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations EPiQS Initiative.

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Apple is already defending iMessage against tomorrow’s quantum computing attacks – The Verge

Apples security team claims to have achieved a breakthrough that advances the state of the art of end-to-end messaging. With the upcoming release of iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, and watchOS 10.4, the company is bringing a new cryptographic protocol called PQ3 to iMessage that it purports to offer even more robust encryption and defenses against sophisticated quantum computing attacks.

Such attacks arent yet a broad threat today, but Apple is preparing for a future where bad actors try to unwind current encryption standards and iMessages security layers with the help of massively powerful computers. Such scenarios could start playing out by the end of the decade, but experts agree that the tech industry need to start defending against them well in advance.

PQ3 is the first messaging protocol to reach what we call Level 3 security providing protocol protections that surpass those in all other widely deployed messaging apps, the security team wrote. Yes, Apple came up with its own ranking system for messaging service security, and iMessage now stands alone at the top thanks to these latest PQ3 advancements.

In the companys view, theyre enough to put Apples service above Signal, which itself recently rolled out more sophisticated security defenses. (For reference, the current version of iMessage ranks as level 1 alongside WhatsApp, Viber, Line, and the older version of Signal.) More than simply replacing an existing algorithm with a new one, we rebuilt the iMessage cryptographic protocol from the ground up to advance the state of the art in end-to-end encryption, Apple wrote.

Apple says that hackers can stow away any encrypted data they obtain today in hopes of being able to break through in several years once quantum computers become a realistic attack vector:

Although quantum computers with this capability dont exist yet, extremely well-resourced attackers can already prepare for their possible arrival by taking advantage of the steep decrease in modern data storage costs. The premise is simple: such attackers can collect large amounts of todays encrypted data and file it all away for future reference. Even though they cant decrypt any of this data today, they can retain it until they acquire a quantum computer that can decrypt it in the future, an attack scenario known asHarvest Now, Decrypt Later.

You can read all the nitty-gritty details on PQ3 in Apples blog post, which is a great example of the companys focus on protecting user data. And as weve learned in recent months, Apple wont hesitate to shut out third parties even those with well-meaning intentions that attempt to encroach on its iPhone-selling messaging platform in any way.

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Government of Canada Supports Xanadu to Accelerate Quantum Computing Research and Education – HPCwire

TORONTO, Feb. 23, 2024 Xanadu, a world leader in photonic quantum computing, received a repayable contribution from the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), to help companies advance and commercialize their quantum products.

This funding, through the Regional Quantum Initiative (RQI), will accelerate the development of PennyLane, Xanadus open-source, cloud-based software framework for quantum machine learning, quantum chemistry, and quantum computing.

Southern Ontario is well-positioned for quantum breakthroughs because we are home to world-leading research centers and high-potential quantum companies, like the ones we are celebrating today. Businesses in this sector are creating incredible technologies and our government is providing support so they can bring them to market faster, advancing Canadas role as a world leader in quantum technologies, said the Hon. Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.

With todays announcement, our government is strengthening Canadas position in quantum technology and helping to boost economic growth and create good jobs for Canadians. Through these investments, we will continue to build this sector and support made-in-Canada technologies that will have a major impact on industries like computing, communications, security and health care, said Bryan May, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Small Business and to the Minister responsible for FedDev Ontario.

Viable applications of quantum computers are contingent upon achieving fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC). Great strides have been made in the field, and to continue the development of quantum computing technologies and ensure FTQC is achieved, the future quantum workforce must be well-trained.

Since 2016, Xanadu has been on a mission to make quantum computers useful and available to people everywhere. One key for that mission is accessibility to top-tier quantum education that will help build the future quantum workforce. To support this goal, Xanadu has worked with numerous universities across Canada and the world to create custom educational programs and has established a dedicated quantum community team that runs educational events, creates free educational materials, and engages directly with the community.

As a budget commitment in 2021, the Government of Canada launched its National Quantum Strategy in January 2023, which is underpinned by three pillars: research, talent, and commercialization. FedDev Ontario is one of the regional development agencies focused on supporting high-potential quantum projects and scaling promising Canadian companies.

Through RQI, Xanadu is receiving a repayable investment of $3.75 million to accelerate its core quantum software, PennyLane. This funding will create 22 new quantum jobs, further strengthening Canadas quantum workforce. The objectives of this project include advancing the operating infrastructure to provide a broader cloud offering, as well as increasing community support and creating more user engagement materials.

We are thrilled to receive this FedDev Ontario support to advance our quantum technology, build a larger quantum community, and further strengthen Canadas position as a global quantum leader, said Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu Founder and CEO.

About Xanadu

Xanadu is a quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Founded in 2016, Xanadu has become one of the worlds leading quantum hardware and software companies. The company also leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum computing and application development.

Source: Xanadu

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DCD Podcast – The fundamentals of quantum computing, with Yuval Boger, QuEra – DCD – DatacenterDynamics

Over the years, several players have emerged in the quantum computing market, offering a variety of approaches to the technology.

From trapped ions to photonic or superconducting, these systems all show promise and all face significant challenges to becoming commercially viable.

In this Zero Downtime podcast episode, we are joined by Yuval Boger of QuEra, a neutral atom-based quantum computer company, to talk about the different types of quantum computers and the challenges in making them powerful and accurate enough for widespread adoption and deployment.

In addition, we talk about some of the uses that quantum computing may be more appropriate than traditional supercomputing.

We also discuss some of the practicalities of deploying quantum computers in data centers, with some such systems requiring powerful cooling systems.

So, which type of quantum computer will win out in the end?

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Inside Finland’s state-of-the-art quantum computing hardware ecosystem – TNW

In 1965, cryogenics pioneer Olli V. Lounasmaa set up the Low Temperature Laboratory (LTL) at what is now Aalto University to research ultra-low temperature physics. Despite some initial scepticism because why would anyone want to research cold in Finland, the LTL has prospered, attracting researchers from all over the world and laying the foundation for Finlands leading quantum computing startup ecosystem.

Quantum computing has long been the stuff of dreams. Arthur C. Clarkes statement from the 1970s that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, has never felt truer than when trying to wrap ones head around phenomena such as quantum entanglement. However, individual pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit together at an ever-increasing pace.

Before we venture any further down the quantum rabbit hole however, just a small public service announcement for those who might be wondering what exactly quantum computers, which use quantum bits, or qubits, as the basic unit of data, actually do. The truth is, not a whole lot yet. However, their potential is nothing short of, well, magical.

If the reality the evangelists are hoping for comes to pass, quantum computers will be able to solve complex issues, including climate change, novel material engineering, new kinds of medicine, ultra-secure forms of encryption, and more. They could also literally break the internet on what is known as Q-Day.

The ultimate goal would be to run some AI and accelerate that with the help of a quantum computer and that kind of system would be able to solve some questions on a, lets say, superhuman level, Juha Vartiainen, head of global affairs and co-founder of IQM, Finlands strike that Europes leading quantum hardware company in superconducting circuits, tells TNW.

Maybe some philosophical questions about the fabric of the world, sort of with first-hand access to the quantum realm, he muses. So basically, the ultimate questions of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

But this is something like quantum utopia. Quantum technologies, and in particular quantum computers, are still in their infancy. Startups looking to carve out a niche in the field need to find means of financially surviving what is called the NISQ-era. This stands for Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum, and refers to the current state of high error rates and limited number of qubits.

It is considered a time of exploration and learning, more than one of actual commercial application. In turn, this means that it is difficult for investors to cash in on the promises of the technology within a customary time span.

We are the camel startups, says Himadri Majumdar, founder and CEO of SemiQon, a company building silicon-based semiconducting quantum processors. We take it slow, but at a steady pace.

SemiQon, a spinout from Finlands state-owned non-profit research organisation VTT, has been able to leverage both private and public funding, Majumdar explains. What we are trying to do is to demonstrate in cycles how we can get to the scalability aspect with every iteration of fabrication that we do.

Due to the difficulty in attracting capital, the edge in quantum computing mostly belongs to countries with governments ready to spend on what they believe will give them a leg up economically or geopolitically in the future. In 2022, China poured $15.3bn into the technology, followed by only $1.8bn from the US government, and $1.2bn from the EU.

The quantum computing market, worth $9.3bn in 2022, is expected to grow to $203.1bn by 2032. Companies with significant quantum projects include tech giants like IBM, Google Quantum AI, Amazon, and Microsoft. And yet, a small country in the Nordics has built a world-leading quantum technology ecosystem including a company without which there would be no quantum computers at all. From our point of view, the story has only started, says Jonas Geust, CEO of Bluefors, the global market leader for what are essentially quantum computer refrigerators. These are the golden chandeliers keeping the qubits chilled. They are a requirement for todays superconducting qubits to function, and entirely synonymous with quantum computers in the mind of the broader public. Although, as quantum computing systems begin to scale, that might change. Bluefors biggest fridge to date is KIDE, built to support a 1,000 qubit system (such as IBMs Quantum Condor chip). KIDE is structurally different in the sense that its standing on the floor, rather than hanging from the ceiling. It is also a hexagon, where you can remove one of the doors, and then put another KIDE next to it, interlinking several quantum computers. We are looking at how to build the scalability in terms of varying industrial needs, Geust adds. We are working on what our customers will need in five years from now and the actual implementations that are still ahead of us. Bluefors was founded in 2008 by Rob Blauwgeers and Pieter Vorselman. It now employs 600 people, has a revenue of over 160mn, and considers the US its second home. The company is also exploring other applications for its cryogenic technology, such as cooling for sensitive sensors for astrophysics, hydrogen storage, and basic material science.

Other quantum hardware startups are also defining revenue generating applications. IQM, for instance, has begun supplying research institutes with smaller scale qubit systems, on which tomorrows quantum engineers can learn to read and handle qubits. The company launched in 2018, and in 2022 it raised 128mn in Series A2 the largest ever funding round raised by a European quantum computing company. The companys first product is the affordably priced 5-qubit IQM Spark. Quantum education has historically been available to only very few physicists, Vartiainen says. And this was fine, because not that many quantum physicists were needed. But now things have changed, and very suddenly.

The idea behind Spark is that students can use it and play with it and run physics simulations, very fundamental discoveries of quantum physics, and run some simple algorithms and learn how a quantum computer works, Vartiainen explains. IQM is also getting ready to ship its larger system Radiance, ranging from 54 to 150 qubits, which it says will pave the way to quantum advantage (when a quantum computer can demonstrably solve a problem no classical computer can), helping businesses train on and navigate smaller systems before larger ones become commercially available. IQM has found a commercial niche as it helps train scientists with the quantum technology available now, using superconductors that require large refrigerating apparatuses. SemiQon on the other hand is building its semiconducting quantum chips that are much less affected by temperatures for the million qubit era. What we were doing at VTT was based on superconductors. So we were building superconductor-based quantum computers. But we also had this capability of doing semiconductor-based quantum processors or quantum computing devices, Majumdar says. And that was more interesting for me personally, because semiconductors are scalable, they are affordable, and the technology has a much bigger prospect of scaling.

Beyond academic traditions, what are the foundations on which Finland has built this leading quantum business container? One thing is that its quite concentrated, IQMs Vartiainen says. Actually, its quite a small area within maybe a radius of two, three kilometres, there are quite a lot of quantum players. There is a lot of know-how in this ecosystem, Majumdar emphasises. This means that we can find solutions, or persons who have the solutions, relatively easily and quite quickly compared to other places. Access to facilities and government-supported infrastructure, such as those at VTT just outside Helsinki, are also essential for startups working in fields like quantum. If you need a measurement facility for a specific, very niche measurement, you find it here. And you dont have to go far, Majumdar says.

For its part, Bluefors works actively with universities and takes on many summer trainees. Indeed, partnership seems to be the keyalso for solving workforce-related issues. When looking for micro-engineering skills, for instance, the company turned to its neighbours at the Finnish School of Watchmaking.

When asked about the difficulty in finding talent for such high-skilled work, Geust states that: Its a continuous challenge. I think this is what anybody working with new technologies is experiencing.

Then he utters what seems to summarise the Finnish ethos, and perhaps in part also explains how this ecosystem has managed to punch above its weight in attracting both talent and foreign investment. On the other hand, I sort of come from the school that it doesnt help complaining, you know we just need to do a better job.

We are still some way away (not even experts can agree on exactly how far) from quantum supremacy. We still need to observe, learn, tinker, and, quite possibly, dream enough for that day to become a reality. But until then, quantum computers will be able to work in conjunction with classical computers, running highly specific simulations.

This is very much being explored in the quantum software engineering realm, a whole other chapter in the quantum saga, which we will feature in another story.

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Inside Finland's state-of-the-art quantum computing hardware ecosystem - TNW

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