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These businesses are building tech that could exceed the abilities of today’s AI.

The field of artificial intelligence is still in its early years, yet several businesses are already working on technology that can become the foundation for AI’s future. These companies are developing quantum computing systems capable of processing mountains of data in seconds, which would take decades for a conventional computer.

Quantum machines can execute multiple computations simultaneously, accelerating processing time, while typical computers must process data in a linear fashion. This means quantum systems can evolve AI beyond the abilities of the most powerful supercomputers, enabling AI to drive cars and help find cures to diseases.

Building a useful quantum computer in practice is incredibly challenging. Significant improvements are needed in the scale, fidelity, speed, reliability, and programmability of quantum computers to fully realize their benefits. Powerful tools are needed to help with the many complex physics and engineering challenges that stand in the way of useful quantum computing.

AI is fundamentally transforming the landscape of technology, reshaping industries, and altering how we interact with the digital world. The ability to take data and generate intelligence paves the way for groundbreaking solutions to some of the most challenging problems facing society today. From personalized medicine to autonomous vehicles, AI is at the forefront of a technological revolution that promises to redefine the future, including many challenging problems standing in the way of useful quantum computing.

Quantum computers will integrate with conventional supercomputers and accelerate key parts of challenging problems relevant to government, academia, and industry. This relationship is described in An Introduction to Quantum Accelerated Supercomputing. The advantages of integrating quantum computers with supercomputers are reciprocal, and this tight integration will also enable AI to help solve the most important challenges standing in the way of useful quantum computing.

The desktop-sized LPU100 eschews traditional electronics and qubits in favor of lasers, and it can reportedly perform complex AI calculations in nanoseconds.

NVIDIA today announced that it will accelerate quantum computing efforts at national supercomputing centers around the world with the open-source NVIDIA CUDA-Q™ platform.

Human Brain as Supercomputer

Brain-emulating computers hold the promise of vastly lower energy computation and better performance on certain tasks. “The human brain is the most advanced supercomputer in the universe, and it consumes only 20 watts to achieve things that artificial intelligence systems today only dream of,” says Hector Gonzalez, cofounder and co-CEO of SpiNNcloud Systems. “We’re basically trying to bridge the gap between brain inspiration and artificial systems.”

Aside from sheer size, a distinguishing feature of the SpiNNaker2 system is its flexibility. Traditionally, most neuromorphic computers emulate the brain’s spiking nature: Neurons fire off electrical spikes to communicate with the neurons around them. The actual mechanism of these spikes in the brain is quite complex, and neuromorphic hardware often implements a specific simplified model. The SpiNNaker2 can implement a broad range of such models however, as they are not hardwired into its architecture.

Ever wonder what happens when you fall into a black hole? Now, thanks to a new, immersive visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer, viewers can plunge into the event horizon, a black hole’s point of no return.

In this visualization of a flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. Produced on a NASA supercomputer, the simulation tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon — the point of no return — of a monster black hole much like the one at the center of our galaxy. (Video: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell)

“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”

Supercomputer prediction about the end of the world is pretty much as bad as it sounds.

Buyer is responsible for relocation of 26,000 pounds of equipment.

ARMONK, N.Y., April 30, 2024 — Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced an agreement with RIKEN, a Japanese national research laboratory, to deploy IBM’s next-generation quantum computer architecture and best-performing quantum processor at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan. It will be the only instance of a quantum computer co-located with the supercomputer Fugaku.

This agreement was executed as part of RIKEN’s existing project, supported by funding from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), an organization under Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)’s “Development of Integrated Utilization Technology for Quantum and Supercomputers” as part of the “Project for Research and Development of Enhanced Infrastructures for Post 5G Information and Communications Systems.” RIKEN has dedicated use of an IBM Quantum System Two architecture for the purpose of implementation of its project. Under the project RIKEN and its co-PI SoftBank Corp., with its collaborators, University of Tokyo, and Osaka University, aim to demonstrate the advantages of such hybrid computational platforms for deployment as services in the future post-5G era, based on the vision of advancing science and business in Japan.

In addition to the project, IBM will work to develop the software stack dedicated to generating and executing integrated quantum-classical workflows in a heterogeneous quantum-HPC hybrid computing environment. These new capabilities will be geared towards delivering improvements in algorithm quality and execution times.