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2021 will be remembered for a lot of things, but when its all said and done we think itll eventually get called the year quantum computing finally came into focus.

Thats not to say useful quantum computers have actually arrived yet. Theyre still somewhere between a couple years and a couple centuries away. Sorry for being so vague, but when youre dealing with quantum physics there arent yet many guarantees.

This is because physics is an incredibly complex and challenging field of study. And the difficulty gets cranked up exponentially when you start adding theoretical and quantum to the research.

Were talking about physics at the very edge of reason. Like, for example, imagining a quantum-powered artificial intelligence capable of taking on the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.

That might sound pretty wacky, but this story explains why its not quite as out there as you might think.

But lets go even further. Lets go past the edge of reason and into the realm of the speculative science. Earlier this year we wondered what would happen if physicists could actually prove that reality as we know it isnt real.

Per that article:

Theoretically, if we could zoom in past the muons and leptons and keep going deeper and deeper, we could reach a point where all objects in the universe are indistinguishable from each other because, at the quantum level, everything that exists is just a sea of nearly-identical subparticulate entities.

This version of reality would render the concepts of space and time pointless. Time would only exist as a construct by which we give meaning to our own observations. And those observations would merely be the classical side-effects of existing in a quantum universe.

So, in the grand scheme of things, its possible that our reality is little more than a fleeting, purposeless arrangement of molecules. Everything that encompasses our entire universe may be nothing more than a brief hallucination caused by a quantum vibration.

Nothing makes you feel special like trying to conceive of yourself as a few seasoning particles in an infinite soup of gooey submolecules.

If having an existential quantum identity-crisis isnt your thing, we also covered a lot of cool stuff that doesnt require you to stop seeing yourself as an individual stack of materials.

Does anyone remember the time China said it had built a quantum computer a million times more powerful than Googles? We dont believe it. But thats the claim the researchersmade. You can read more about that here.

Oh, and that Google quantum system the Chinese researchers referenced? Yeah, it turns out it wasnt exactly the massive upgrade over classical supercomputers it was chalked up to be either.

But, of course, we forgive Google for its marketing faux pas. And thats because, hands down, the biggest story of the year for quantum computers was the time crystal breakthrough.

As we wrote at the time:

If Googles actually created time-crystals, it could accelerate the timeline for quantum computing breakthroughs from maybe never to maybe within a few decades.

At the far-fetched, super-optimistic end of things we could see the creation of a working warp drive in our lifetimes. Imagine taking a trip to Mars or the edge of our solar system, and being back home on Earth in time to catch the evening news.

And, even on the conservative end with more realistic expectations, its not hard to imagine quantum computing-based chemical and drug discovery leading to universally-effective cancer treatments.

Talk about a eureka moment!

But there were even bigger things in the world of quantum physics than just advancing computer technology.

Scientists from the University of Sussex determined that black holes emanate a specific kind of quantum pressure that could lend some credence to multiple universe theories.

Basically, we cant explain where the pressure comes from. Could this be blow back from white holes swallowing up energy and matter in a dark, doppelganger universe that exists parallel to our own? Nobody knows! You can read more here though.

Still there were even bigger philosophical questions in play over the course of 2021 when it came to interpreting physics research.

Are we incapable of finding evidence for God because were actually gods in our rights? That might sound like philosophy, but there are some pretty radical physics interpretations behind that assertion.

And, if we are gods, can we stop time? Turns out, whether were just squishy mortal meatbags or actual deities, we actually can!

Alright. If none of those stories impress you, weve saved this one for last. If being a god, inventing time crystals, or even stopping time doesnt float your boat, how about immortality? And not just regular boring immortality, butquantum immortality.

Its probably not probable, and adding the word quantum to something doesnt necessarily make it cooler, but anythings possible in an infinite universe. Plus, the underlying theories involving massive-scale entanglement are incredible read more here.

Seldom a day goes by where something incredible isnt happening in the world of physics research. But thats nothing compared to the magic weve yet to uncover out there in this fabulous universe we live in.

Luckily for you, Neural will be back in 2022 to help make sense of it all. Stick with us for the most compelling, wild, and deep reporting on the quantum world this side of the non-fiction realm.

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Neural's best quantum computing and physics stories from 2021 - The Next Web

We are living in a do-anything-from-anywhere economy enabled by an exponentially expanding data ecosystem. Its estimated that 65% of global gross domestic product (GDP) will be digital in 2022. This influx of data presents both opportunities and challenges. After all, success in our digital present and future relies on our ability to secure and maintain increasingly complex information technology (IT) systems. Here, I will examine near-term and long-term predictions that address the way the IT industry will deliver the platforms and capabilities to harness this data to transform our experiences at work, home and in the classroom.

The edge discussion will separate into two focus areasedge platforms that provide a stable pool of secure capacity for the diverse edge ecosystems and software-defined edge workloads or software stacks that extend application and data systems into real-world environments. We are already seeing this shift today. As we move into 2022, we expect edge platforms to become more capable and pervasive.

The opening of the private mobility ecosystem will accelerate with more cloud and IT industries involved on the path to 5G. The enterprise use of 5G is still early. In fact, today, 5G is not significantly different or better than WiFi in most enterprise use cases. This will change in 2022 as more modern and capable versions of 5G become available to enterprises.

More importantly, we expect the ecosystem delivering new and more capable private mobility, to expand and include IT providers, such as Dell Technologies, besides public cloud providers and even new open-source ecosystems focused on acceleration of the open 5G ecosystem.

Edge will become the new battleground for data management as it becomes a new class of workload. Data management and edge will increasingly converge and reinforce each other.

As the digital transformation accelerates, it has become clear that most of the data in the world will be created and acted on outside of centralized data centres. We expect that the entire data management ecosystem will become very active in developing and utilizing edge IT capacity as the ingress and egress of their data pipelines, and will also utilize edges to remotely process and digest data.

The security industry is now moving from discussion of emerging security concerns to a bias towards action. Enterprises and governments are facing threats of greater sophistication and impact on revenue and services. As a result, the security industry is responding with greater automation and integration. The industry is also pivoting from automated detection to prevention and response with a focus on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to speed remediation.

Quantum computing: Hybrid quantum or classical compute will take centre-stage, providing greater access to quantum. In 2022, we expect two major industry consensuses to emerge. First, we expect the industry will see the inevitable topology of a quantum system in a hybrid quantum computer. The second major consensus is that quantum simulation using conventional computing will be the most cost-effective and accessible way to get quantum systems into the hands of our universities, data science teams and researchers. In fact, Dell and IBM already announced significant work in making quantum simulation available to the world.

Automotive: The automotive ecosystem will rapidly shift focus from a mechanical ecosystem to a data and compute industry. We are seeing a shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, resulting in radical simplification of the physical supply chain. Dell is actively engaged with most of the worlds major automotive companies in their early efforts, and we expect 2022 to continue their evolution towards digital transformation and deep interaction with IT ecosystems.

Digital twins: Digital twins will become easier to create and consume as the technology is more clearly defined with dedicated tools. Over the next several years, we will see digital twins becoming easier to create and consume as we define standardized frameworks, solutions and platforms.

As a technology optimist, I increasingly see a world where humans and technology work together to deliver impactful outcomes at an unprecedented speed. These near-term and long-term perspectives are based on the strides we are making today. If we see even incremental improvement, there is enormous opportunity to positively transform the way we work, live and learn, and 2022 will be another year of accelerated technology innovation and adoption.

John Roese is global chief technology officer, Dell Technologies.

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The tech that will change the dialogue n 2022 - Mint

A new academic paper reveals a worrisome tendency for cosmic rays to disrupt quantum computer processors in a way that may be nearly impossible for current error correction techniques to reliably counteract.

One of the biggest obstacles faced by quantum computers is dealing with error correction. Traditionally, this has been most commonly handled by grouping together multiple qubits, the quantum equivalent of traditional computing's bits, into a sort of committee within quantum processing units. Rather than the system relying on a single qubit, which may or may not be correct, it instead relies on the consensus provided by an entire group of qubits. This strips away erroneous outliers and greatly reduces the error rate to a point where it's extremely unlikely that it will interfere with an ongoing processing job.

Unfortunately, in a very sci-fi-sounding turn of events, it appears that an unseen enemy from outer space may be threatening the viability of this error-correcting technology.

Cosmic rays are invisible, microscopic particle beams that constantly bombard the Earth from sources as far away as other galaxies. They typically collide harmlessly with the planet's atmosphere as well as objects within it. In fact, you'll likely be hit by several of them while reading this article. Luckily, for our peace of mind, they generally go completely unnoticed and do absolutely no harm before continuing on their cosmic journey. Unfortunately for quantum computing developers, it appears that quantum processors may be far, far more sensitive to these typically unnoticeable intruders than they realized.

In a paper published in Nature Physics and covered by Ars Technica, it's been revealed that one of these typically harmless rays could cause a major problem when it hits an operating quantum CPU. According to the findings of several researchers working at Google Quantum AI, a cosmic ray strike on an operating quantum computer core can result in the formation of a quasiparticle called a phonon.

These phonons have the capacity to disrupt operations by inverting the quantum state of not only a single qubit, but an entire entangled set of qubitsas they proliferate across the processor. This means a strike could distribute errors across an entire qubit set, essentially nullifying the protection provided by the committee-like error correction mentioned above.

In an experiment detailed within the paper, Google researchers tested a set of 26 qubits that were known to be amongst their most reliable. This set was then left in an idle state for 100 microseconds. While idling, reliable qubits should generally remain in their current state. To use a traditional, binary computing analogy, a 1 should remain a 1, a 0 should remain a 0.

On average, the 26 qubits set in question displayed an error rate of about 4 qubits that erroneously flipped their state within the 100 microsecond test period. This is well within the built-in error correction's ability to compensate by relying on the remaining majority of 22 qubits. However, during confirmed quantum ray strikes, 24 of the 26 qubits were found to have erroneously flipped to the opposite state. This result is well beyond traditional error correction's ability to compensate for. Such an outcome would place the entire group in error and could throw the entire processing job's continuity into question.

Cosmic ray interference is nothing new. As Ars noted, they can also interact with traditional CPUs by messing with the electrical charges they rely on to complete their logic operations. However, the unique and still-developing structure of quantum processors makes them far more prone to such interference, with Google's research indicating that a cosmic ray-induced error happens as often as every 10 seconds. This means the hours-long processing jobs most quantum CPUs are being tasked with could include hundreds, if not thousands of errors littered throughout their results.

Making matters worse is the fact that the processor these researchers used for their testing was rather small. As processing demands increase, so too must the size of the quantum processor. But, the larger the processor, the more surface area there is to potentially suffer a cosmic ray collision. It appears the threat of forced errors is only going to become direr as quantum CPUs continue making their way towards practical applications.

Unfortunately, there is no practical way to reliably block these problematic, intergalactic travelers. They are moving at almost the speed of light, after all. However, as pointed out by Ars Technica, some clever workarounds have already been developed to help devices like astronomical imaging equipment cope with quantum ray interference. While the paper does not specifically explore the viability of these potential solutions, they do seem to indicate the problem of cosmic ray interference is a surmountable one.

Read the original here:
Quantum computing now has an out-of-this-world problem: Cosmic rays - ZDNet

Smarter algorithms and machine language: AI has been the driving force for most products, applications and even devices that we use today. On 22 November, Gartner predicted that the total revenue in the AI software market is expected to hit $62.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 21.3% from 2021. The AI software market is picking up speed, but its long-term trajectory will depend on enterprises advancing their AI maturity," said Alys Woodward, senior research director at Gartner.

AI deployment in 2022 will be in knowledge management, virtual assistants, autonomous vehicles, digital workplaces and crowdsourced data, Gartner said. In addition, companies like Google are developing newer language learning models like LaMDALanguage Model for Dialogue Applicationswhich, the company claims, can hold their own in natural conversations.

Faster networks with bigger bandwidth: 5G has been in the works for what seems like years now, but 2022 may finally be the year we see these next-generation networks rolling out. India has already approved trial spectrum for telcos such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The 5G spectrum auctions are expected in the first half of next year. 5G networks will start rolling out to the public next year if all goes well. In short, 5G means lower latency, which is what users perceive as speed. The new networks will allow new use cases for enterprises, enable smart city implementations and more.

Intelligent cloud and edge computing: The new use cases with 5G networks are heavily dependent on 5G. For instance, in September, Airtel tested Indias first cloud-gaming session in a 5G environment at its Manesar facility. The companys chief technology officer, Randip Sekhon, said cloud gaming would be among the biggest use cases" for 5G networks. The dependency on the cloud will only increase among enterprises.

Moreover, edge computing is finally set to flourish. It is helping enterprises bring the data and computing requirements closer to the users device. This trend will help make products like driverless or autonomous vehicles more efficient.

More interconnected devices that talk to each other: Earlier this month, Airtel, Invest India and the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency announced a Startup Innovation Challenge. The challenge asks early-stage startups to create new use cases involving IoT. As data flows faster and computing power comes from large server farms using the cloud, more devices can start connecting and working as one. A June report by Gartner said the IoT endpoint electronics and communications market will touch $21.3 billion in 2022, increasing its forecast by 22% against the 2021 predictions. This is driven by governments using IoT for surveillance, enterprises using connected devices for everything from banking to communication, and delivering new products.

Privacy gaining ground: After about two years of deliberation, the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on the Data Protection Bill was finally able to table its report on the bill during the ongoing winter session of Parliament. The JPC recommended that India have one bill to regulate personal and non-personal data and stop companies from profiling childrens accounts and using targeted ads for them. The bill also gives consumers rights over their data. But India isnt the only country looking into such data regulations. Indias bill borrows heavily from the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and governments worldwide are also considering such regulations. Big Tech firms are fighting lawsuits against government bodies, competition regulations and more. The outcome of all these cases will impact how our data is used in the future.

Mixing and blending realities: In 1964, an animated science-fiction franchise called Jonny Quest imagined a virtual world called QuestWorld. The protagonists would put on futuristic virtual reality (VR) headsets and fight battles in a virtual world. It was futuristic then, but VR and augmented reality (AR) headsets are all too familiar now. In fact, they have been for almost a decade now. But in 2021, Facebook launched a product called Ray-Ban Stories, partnering with eyeglass maker Ray-Ban for a pair of smart glasses that look and feel almost exactly like regular spectacles. Tech firms aim to make these devices ubiquitous and reach economies of scale that comes from selling millions of devices worldwide.

Immutable and interconnected ledgers: If AI was the key change maker over the past decade, blockchain might well enable the next step in the technology. According to many estimates, India has become one of the top players in cryptocurrency adoption worldwide, but whats seen as a trading asset today has more significant implications. Cryptocurrencies are powered by blockchain technology, and in April, the International Data Corp. said that organizations would spend as much as $6.6 billion on blockchain solutions in 2021 alonea 50% increase from 2020. The market researcher also predicted an annual average growth rate of 48% between 2020 and 2024. Indias second crypto unicorn, CoinSwitch Kuber, has said that it aims to support other blockchain firms in India. Industry stakeholders and experts understand that blockchains will power cross-border payments, banking and much more in future. Even the Reserve Bank of Indias upcoming Central Bank Digital Currency, or a digital rupee, will be powered by blockchain technologies.

The third generation of the internet: The hit HBO show Silicon Valley has imagined a new internet void of dominance by Big Tech firms, governments and more. The idea may sound utopian, but thats exactly what companies building apps for the third generation of the internet (web3) are building today. Companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and others benefit greatly from the fact that most of the worlds data flows through their servers. However, with web3, the power is handed back to the users in a way. It runs without servers, depends on a network of phones, computers and other devices, and bars any one person or entity on the network to wield control on datain a word, decentralization. For instance, Noida-based Ayush Ranjan has built the worlds first decentralized video chat app. Unlike Google Meet, Zoom, the Huddle 01 app doesnt require users to create an account, and the company doesnt have its own data centres to store your data in or record calls. Instead, it stores all the data in a decentralized manner and uses computing power from users devices to power the calls.

Rise of the metaverse: 5G, cloud computing, IoT, web3 are all tools in a larger vision that technologists and technology leaders have right now. And thats called the metaverse. Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg is so confident that the metaverse is coming that he rebranded his company, one of the most valuable in the world, to Meta as an effort to show where his focus is today. Author Neal Stephenson is often credited with coining the term in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, and it has also been explored in contemporary movies like Ready Player One. The metaverse is not a technology; it is a concept. Zuckerberg and others expect that we will do everything from conducting meetings to hosting parties in a virtual space and through very realistic looking avatars. Instead of shopping on an e-commerce store, the avatar will walk into a virtual store, try on a product and have the physical product delivered to our homes too. However, hardware veterans like Intels Raja Koduri have warned that the computing power we have today is nowhere close to being sufficient for the metaverse Zuckerberg imagines.

Quantum computing: That brings us to what could be the most transformational trend in technologyquantum computing. Any country with aspirations to be a leader in technology has its sights set on quantum computing. While web3 is a new internet, quantum computing establishes a whole new computer. Our traditional computers can take information in 0 and 1, and their computations are limited by this. Quantum computers, on the other hand, use concepts of quantum physics to enhance the amount of computing power we can use. A quantum computer is far from reality right now, and it could be the kind of computing power Koduri says we need for the metaverse. In the 2020 Budget, the government had allocated 8,000 crore over the next five years for developing quantum computing tech. It has also launched a Quantum Simulator, which allows researchers to build quantum applications without a real computer.

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10 technology trends that could prove to be real game-changers - Mint

Daan de Cloe, co-founder and CTO of AutoFill Technologies, provides his predictions for the deep tech space in 2022 and beyond

Deep tech capabilities powered by AI are set to make waves in the near future.

Whether a buzzword or not, its safe to say that deep tech is currently one of the hottest areas of interest for technologists and set to only gain traction in the coming years.

From artificial intelligence through to robotics, quantum computing, blockchain and biotech the list goes on the unique thing about deep tech is, albeit developed by commercial firms, it is not necessarily targeted at end-consumers. Based on research around engineering innovation with deep tech, scientists and technologists come together to collaborate towards a common goal, may that be finding the latest solution to a chronic disease, or the product idea that will positively impact societal challenges like climate change.

Due to its scientific, theoretical nature, a lot has been speculated on how deep tech can help us create tangible societal shifts and build a better future. But what does the future look like? More specifically, what sorts of technologies will make the most impact on the world? Ive got my bets on a few things.

When deep tech ties into a computers tangible components, and trained data sets are piping through a piece of hardware, the possibilities are endless. The increased combination of hardware and software, powered by edge computing, will bring the opportunities and applications of AI to a whole new level, resulting in enormous change of existing operational processes.

At the edge, processors that collect data are embedded within devices, and data is collected at its sources rather than in the cloud or a data centre. This massively accelerates the AI pipeline, unlocking a whole new variety of AI-powered functionalities.

I believe this will be a big focus for companies and industries in 2022, and its no surprise that leading computer systems companies, such as Nvidia, are investing heavily on their edge computing offerings.

Martin Percival, solutions architect at Red Hat, identifies three elements that are essential to the future of edge computing. Read here

Whilst the difficulties in developing practical versions of quantum computers have consequently confined them to the lab, its safe to say that the race to quantum supremacy will only grow tighter in 2022, led by the likes of Google and IBM. Its no longer a matter of if, but rather when quantum computers will become the new norm.

Simply put, quantum computers are able to solve complicated problems incredibly fast and effectively. In a few seconds, they can perform calculations that todays supercomputers would need decades or even millennia to work out. These sorts of problems range from a logistics company trying to determine the greenest route between 50 different cities and 300 addresses in real-time to reduce carbon emissions, to a pharmaceutical organisation experimenting with simulated molecules to predict drug interactions with a mutating virus.

By harnessing the strange world of quantum mechanics, quantum computer systems create multidimensional environments in which such large problems can be represented. Later, algorithms that apply quantum wave interference analyse all the different combinations and translate the optimal possibilities back into solutions we can understand and practically use.

This results in significantly higher processing efficiency and time-saving. For example, if you wanted to find one item in a list of 1 trillion, and each item took 1 microsecond to check, a classical computer would take about 1 week to find the item, whereas a quantum computer about 1 second.

That being said, theres no doubt that quantum computing will enable new, more advanced ways of machine learning. Thats because the ability to process very large quantities of data in micro periods of time improves the quality and accuracy of predictions and decisions made by artificial intelligence. It becomes intuitively smart and capable of identifying patterns. Better pattern recognition, in turn, allows for business leaders to keep a close eye on a chain of events and act proactively to avoid potential issues, instead of having to react to a situation that may have occurred.

So far, artificial intelligence has seen most of its applications in market sectors like professional & financial services, and high-tech telecoms. However, Ive observed a recent take on AI applications by the automotive, transport & mobility sector, and my guess is that the use of the technology in the industry will only increase in 2022.

Thats because as the population expands, governments must develop the infrastructure to support it. This includes better transport networks, of which AI has an enormous potential to increase safety and efficiency.

Take AI-powered automated inspections, for instance. AI enables continuous monitoring of even the remotest infrastructure, increases accuracy and objectivity, and triggers preventive maintenance. This ensures cost savings and improves safety, which can really make the difference between rolling out vital transport systems or not.

With traffic logistics optimised, the number of vehicle movements is consequently reduced, allowing for optimised traffic flow. Not only that, but a safe and reliable transport network further stimulates the use of public transport over car usage, supporting global ambitions to cut carbon emissions. Modernising, optimising, and enhancing quality control at scale will ensure that infrastructure remains resilient, inclusive, and sustainable.

Now, if theres one thing edge computing, quantum computing and automated technologies have in common, it is the use of AI as a key driver to innovation. There has been a significant leap in the way society harnesses artificial intelligence as an integral part of our lives. Im excited to see what the future holds next from the looks of it, its increasingly artificially intelligent.

See the rest here:
Deep tech in 2022: the future is looking artificially intelligent - Information Age