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First Demonstration of Artificial Intelligence On a Quantum Computer

KentuckyFC writes: Machine learning algorithms use a training dataset to learn how to recognize features in images and use this 'knowledge' to spot the same features in new images. The computational complexity of this task is such that the time required to solve it increases in polynomial time with the number of images in the training set and the complexity of the "learned" feature. So it's no surprise that quantum computers ought to be able to rapidly speed up this process. Indeed, a group of theoretical physicists last year designed a quantum algorithm that solves this problem in logarithmic time rather than polynomial, a significant improvement.

Now, a Chinese team has successfully implemented this artificial intelligence algorithm on a working quantum computer, for the first time. The information processor is a standard nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computer capable of handling 4 qubits. The team trained it to recognize the difference between the characters '6' and '9' and then asked it to classify a set of handwritten 6s and 9s accordingly, which it did successfully. The team says this is the first time that this kind of artificial intelligence has ever been demonstrated on a quantum computer and opens the way to the more rapid processing of other big data sets — provided, of course, that physicists can build more powerful quantum computers.

98 comments

  1. Captchas! by Lanforod · · Score: 4, Funny

    Crap. now what are we going to do instead of using a captcha?!

    1. Re:Captchas! by zlives · · Score: 1

      i think we are ok until they teach it to recognize hand written "I vs l"

    2. Re:Captchas! by Empiric · · Score: 1

      And we're quite okay on the AI claim until they teach it to critique in detail the respective statements "l think therefore l am" versus "I think therefore I am"...

      --
      ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
    3. Re:Captchas! by zlives · · Score: 1

      oh I thought they were claiming that the recognition was done by Al, Not AI.

    4. Re:Captchas! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prove you are human HIT THE MONKEY.

    5. Re:Captchas! by jamiesan · · Score: 1

      Mr. Buquerque?

    6. Re:Captchas! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The phrase "artificial intelligence" does seem to get thrown around just a bit too freely these days. I don't see anything "artificial intelligence" about this at all. It's just an image recognition algorithm.

    7. Re:Captchas! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The phrase "artificial intelligence" does seem to get thrown around just a bit too freely these days. I don't see anything "artificial intelligence" about this at all. It's just an image recognition algorithm.

      That's what Artificial Intelligence is. Unless you're talking about science fiction.

    8. Re:Captchas! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You humans ask some dumb questions.

    9. Re:Captchas! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's never been a need for captcha. Integrate schema.org buttons into mail as standard as Google are doing. and you can deep link into a temporarily existing web interface sent to that mail. Google 'Google action in the mailbox'. Just have your site required the email address of the recipient using it - they get a action button that deep links to the generated hash string which is embedded in the temporary link. Done. It will take time but there will be no captcha in the future unless people want it.

    10. Re:Captchas! by Scotland · · Score: 1

      The truism about Artificial Intelligence is that once a cutting edge problem in AI gets solved, the masses just redefine it as "computer science algorithm". Image recognition was once the leading edge of AI. It's still AI, just not leading edge anymore (unless you're doing something completely novel, like doing it on a quantum computer). Intelligence *is* pattern recognition, of which image recognition is one type.

    11. Re:Captchas! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, Mr Pacca

    12. Re:Captchas! by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      It's still AI, just not leading edge anymore (unless you're doing something completely novel, like doing it on a quantum computer).

      Indeed. The headline here shouldn't be AI; it should be that the algorithm ran in logarithmic time instead of polynomial time, as hypothesized.

    13. Re:Captchas! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      It's still AI, just not leading edge anymore (unless you're doing something completely novel, like doing it on a quantum computer). Intelligence *is* pattern recognition, of which image recognition is one type.

      No, you have it backward. The truth is that NONE of it is "AI".

      We have no idea how to do AI, and labeling things "AI" when they just aren't waters down the whole concept.

  2. There is no "working AI" at this time by gweihir · · Score: 4, Informative

    And also no working quantum computer, except for very small toys. Pattern recognition is not AI.

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    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Ceriel+Nosforit · · Score: 1

      If it has a name, it is not AI.

      AI is forever at the horizon, but that is also what makes AI research great.

      --
      All rites reversed 2010
    2. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, nobody expects you to actually succeed.

      And when you do it is game over for meatspace so they are kind of internally relieved anyway.

    3. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by QilessQi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're right that the wording is overblown, but AI is a big field, and pattern recognition is a big part of it -- vision, voice recognition, decision making, and other facets of human intelligence all rely on automated categorization of inputs to some degree.

      Getting a tiny piece of the puzzle to work in a test tube is a necessary first step to bigger and better things. No one is going to put together a working brain in one shot (if ever).

    4. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by gstoddart · · Score: 0

      Kind of what I was thinking. I had an ex who was doing machine learning 20 years ago.

      Training neural nets and the like to recognize patterns was seen as a step to machine learning, and a way to apply it to specific problems.

      But identifying the difference between a '6' and a '9'? I agree that this is 'AI' as much as me heating something in the microwave makes me a chef.

      This isn't 'AI' as far as I'm concerned. It's neat, it's cool. But it aint AI.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      Posting uninformed opinions on slashdot is not NI.

      Okay, that's a bit hostile, but the point is that AI as a field refers to creating software solutions to problems without knowing the full details of what those problems entail. Solutions that can be easily applied to a completely different kind of problem without re-engineering.

      That doesn't make it amazing, as good as a human(or even an insect), but the field isn't "Artificial Personhood" for a reason.

    6. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 3, Informative

      Pattern recognition, decision theory, game theory, and partitioning are AI subjects. AI isn't just the mysterious general-purpose thinking machine always on the horizon.

      Some pattern recognition uses neural networks for training.

      --
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    7. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And it's a fucking misnomer.

      Artificial implies not real and intelligence implies thinking.

      Artificial intelligence is so unattainable that the original definition has evolved to something meaningless.

      True artificial intelligence is when a computer becomes depressed because it lost its connection to Facebook.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    8. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by captjc · · Score: 2

      Of course it is AI, not cutting edge AI, but it is still AI. Just because it is now a mature solved problem, doesn't make it any less valid.

      It is like saying that someone doing the old "calculate the landing position of a cannonball fired at X velocity at Y angle" problem isn't doing physics because modern physics now involves super-tiny particles and / or traveling at speeds near the speed of light.

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    9. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

      The way ya'll keep equating humanness to intelligence, even as a joke, is a really stupid thing.

      Our tests, we humans use on each other to determine intelligence like IQ or GI tests? They aren't testing our humanity, our empathy, our emotionality, our drive, our neuroticism. They're testing, get this, our pattern recognition.

      The exact thing the OP was whining about being called AI.

    10. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      I'm more inclined to think it is more akin to calculating trajectories than it is AI.

      There's no 'intelligence', there's fancy pattern recognition.

      I have no idea of the formal definition of AI, but to me without some form of abstract decision making and actually applying it to something, it's just clever automation.

      Vending machines have been able to identify what kind of coin you put in for decades. That doesn't make them 'intelligent'.

      Is it a more sophisticated form of input that a keyboard? Sure. But, to me at least, a machine which goes 'ping' when its inputs has been satisfied isn't any form of 'intelligence'.

      Now, show it a 5 and tell me what it does. If it says "error" or "6", then I'm afraid I'm going to say I disagree it's 'AI'.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    11. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Pattern recognition is weak AI.

      Strong AI does not exist yet.

    12. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by gweihir · · Score: 0

      Really? Do I have to call it "strong AI" or "true AI" , because that AI field is just full of f***** liars that use a name that gets them lots of funding but boils down to intentional misdirection?

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      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    13. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      Ah the good old "arugment ad dictionarium" going exclusively to definition #2 to prove that your accusations of being narrow-minded are totes unreasonable.

    14. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Yes, and that is the meaning I use when I say or hear "AI". All other things are just misdirection, intended to get lots of funding from people that also use this definition and are unaware of the fundamental dishonesty of many people that are in the AI field. Scientists that use "AI" for all the weaker stuff around are just liars.

      I am extremely tired of that whole field. Personally, I would sack everybody in there that has ever used this misdirection and make sure they never work as scientists again.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    15. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 0

      Listen, asshole: I started this digital shit back when Moby Dick was a minnow and I've watched the wilting of the definition of AI over the years.

      I didn't write the definition I cited, right?

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    16. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one is going to put together a working brain in one shot (if ever).

      My mom did, will a little help from dad of course.

      Once we get better at genetic 'programming', will it matter if the (not our. Making a smart something a slave has never worked well in the long run) AIs are grown instead of compiled? I think we'll be able to grow one before we'll code one. I have no doubt that we'll eventually do both.

      On a side note since ACs have only 10 posts a day (is that new?), handwritten digit recognition is above 99% in the latest research papers.

    17. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Immerman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >I have no idea of the formal definition of AI

      You seem to be thinking of "Strong AI" - which is an actual thinking machine and the potentially immensely dangerous holy grail of AI research. All the various components - pattern recognition, descision-tree analysis, etc constitute Weak AI - basically everything that we can do on "autopilot" without conscious intervention.

      And incidentally there's a growing body of evidence that our own brains may be composed of a large number of complexly interacting "weak intelligence" modules. For example theres a small area that appears to be dedicated just to face recognition - damage it and cognition is apparently unaffected but you can no longer recognize faces. Stimulate it and strangers faces seem to shift and look like someone you almost know.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    18. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Immerman · · Score: 2

      >Artificial implies not real and intelligence implies thinking.

      No. Lets consult the dictionary shall we:
         

      Artificial: made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, typically as a copy of something natural.

      Comes from the same root as "artifact" - a made thing.
      So AI literally means a human-made intelligence, as opposed to a naturally grown one.

      Now intelligence is a much more slippery term that has never been well-defined, and no it doesn't necessarily imply thinking in any sort of conscious sense. Let's see what wikipedia has to say:

      Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. It can also be more generally described as the ability to perceive and/or retain knowledge or information and apply it to itself or other instances of knowledge or information creating referable understanding models of any size, density, or complexity

      I'd say that large umbrella covers an awful lot of the various domain-specific weak-AI research, wouldn't you?

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    19. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      What webster writes is not really relevant (unless they would everywhere: 'lay man usage')

      Relevant however is how the scientific field, more precisely the subdiscipline called 'AI' in the field of computer science defines that themseleves.

      So no: 99% of AI have nothing to do with simulating 'human behaviour', that is only the case in SF stories ;D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    20. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Let's not forget that AI stands for Artificial Intelligence.

      The key word is Artificial.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    21. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Capt.Albatross · · Score: 1

      This new definition of AI is several steps down from what Minski, McCarthy and company were aiming for. While this work is the direct descendent of theirs, and is often significant and sometimes impressive in its own right, there is an odor of self-congratulatory aggrandizement about the current usage.

    22. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      749298 is less than 3678879

    23. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 3, Interesting

      But identifying the difference between a '6' and a '9'? I agree that this is 'AI' as much as me heating something in the microwave makes me a chef.

      This isn't 'AI' as far as I'm concerned. It's neat, it's cool. But it aint AI.

      You're forgetting one important factor: they did it in a quantum computer. Do you know how difficult those things are to build? Do you appreciate that this makes them expensive? And can you see how this would mean that all the quantum computers in existence are very very small in terms of component numbers compared to computers that work within the bounds of Newtonian physics?

      The machine they used has 4 quantum bits. 4 quantum bits! That really is very little computing power. And with that they did a non-negligible task.

      But the important thing isn't that this was a breakthrough in AI research, it was that quantum computing reduced the task from polynomial time to logarithmic. I think the summary calling this "a significant improvement" is a bit of an understatement.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    24. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 2

      Listen, asshole: I started this digital shit back when Moby Dick was a minnow and I've watched the wilting of the definition of AI over the years.

      I didn't write the definition I cited, right?

      True, but you also didn't highlight the first definition, the definition the dictionary compilers thought was more important: "a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers."

      Visual pattern recognition is intelligent behaviour. Unless your definition of intelligence is predicated exclusively on higher-order reasoning and free will.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    25. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1
      I was about to ask you what your preferred replacement for the term AI would be, but then I got to this point:

      I am extremely tired of that whole field.

      I don't think you really care enough to have thought of a better term, do you?

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    26. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Does your brain do pattern matching? Yes, it does. Therefore they are artificially modelling a process involved in human (and animal) intelligence. Would you prefer that they called it "synthetic psychology"? "Computation neuroscience"? "Electronic subconcious studies"?

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    27. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      This new definition of AI is several steps down from what Minski, McCarthy and company were aiming for. While this work is the direct descendent of theirs, and is often significant and sometimes impressive in its own right, there is an odor of self-congratulatory aggrandizement about the current usage.

      In which case, there must have been an "odor of self-congratulatory aggrandizement" about Minsky (I haven't studied AI in general since 1998, but at least I know how to spell his name) because the guys working on it now are a lot nearer to what he was aiming for when he started out.

      Now remind me (as I said, I haven't read the name Marvin Minsky since 98) was he a strong or a weak AI advocate?

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    28. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      The goal of AI was to be humanoid. Recall that I was there. The bar has been lowered, according to TFS to recognize the difference between a 6 and a 9.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    29. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      No, that is only the case of people in the business changing the marketing hype to adjust for their failure to meet the original definition.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    30. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      In the early days, AI was a simple concept.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    31. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Mod +1

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    32. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by bn-7bc · · Score: 0

      You are right, and your point? Not posting to be a smart ass, I simply did not get the point of your post.

    33. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Oh, and you are old enough to know the original definition?

      Hint: there is none ... the thema is a congloromat of hundreds of disciplines that merged together under the umbrella 'AI'.

      If you had studied computer sciense you would know that :)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    34. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      congloromat

      If you had studied computer sciense you would know that

      Can you distinguish between a 6 and a 9 and stuff?

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    35. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by MildlyTangy · · Score: 1

      And it's a fucking misnomer.

      Artificial implies not real and intelligence implies thinking.

      Artificial intelligence is so unattainable that the original definition has evolved to something meaningless.

      True artificial intelligence is when a computer becomes depressed because it lost its connection to Facebook.

      Since when does artificial imply "not real" ? Artificial implies "man made".

    36. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Yes, I can. But as my iPad randomly refuses to underline misspelled words red, I don't see typos.
      But good that you have those eagle eyes to 'spot' them as well as the neuron wiring to 'pattern match' them.

      As I plan to translate a book to english, fancy to correct the spelling errors?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    37. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      I won't correct your spelling errors, but here's a site that would benefit you.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    38. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very good. Now the other half of that phrase is Intelligence. That being not just having a mass of data (Knowledge) but the ability to understand that data and the relationships between data points, and the ability to reason about new data never before encountered. By that definition even face detection using Eiger filters or Haar Cascades is a form of AI, but it's not General Purpose AI that can be unleashed in the world in an unsupervised fashion. Trying to pass off text recognition as general purpose AI is like trying to pass off a mop squeezer as a self-sufficient autonomous robot.

    39. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Yes. And then early chat-bots showed that fooling humans was actually really simple and said a lot more about us than the software. Then they moved on to developing software that could tackle various specific tasks that we believed required thinking to solve. The result being that we now have a whole lot of "thinking machines" that can perform useful, domain-specifc, analysis and decision making far faster and more reliably than a human.

      Personally I think that's a good outcome - creating a true, self-aware, general-purpose artificial mind is potentially one of the most dangerous and pointless things we could accomplish. Dangerous because an artificial mind would likely be able to think circles around us very shortly after it hit parity, and there's absolutely no reason to assume that our first successes would have any trace of the compassion and ethical framework that evolution has bestowed upon us. And as any number of SF stories has shown, even the most seemingly benign motivations can result in truly monstrous outcomes.

      And pointless because, well, what are you going to do with it? You can't ethically enslave it, even if you could somehow forge chains to hold it indefinitely. At best you could instill it with the intelligence and inclination to do the intellectual "drudge work" that humans lack the inclination or aptitude to do effectively. Sure, potentially you could create a super-mind to advise humanity, but we already have a huge population of scientists whose sound advice is generally ignored by politicians unless it furthers their own goals - do you really think an AI would be better received? Or worse - do you really want an AI that would dedicate itself to finding the sorts of advice that politicians actually want?

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    40. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Does the brain consume oxygen? Yes, it does. So an acetylene-torch is an AI device?

      Really, you are a failure an natural intelligence.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    41. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Oh ye of simple mind. "AI" is just fine. Its misuse is not. And I should have said "I am extremely tired of a certain type of person working in that field".

      --
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    42. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Visual processing is a subproblem of human cognition. Your complaint is akin to moaning to someone studying human anatomy trying to work out how the left ventricle works, on the grounds that "the left ventricle is a human being".

      Remember that "Artificial intelligence" is the name of the research field, and it doesn't imply that an individual research outcome is "intelligent".

      Now, if you were there at the start and you are disappointed in the progress in the field, you clearly had been reading too much science fiction.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    43. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Does the brain consume oxygen? Yes, it does.

      Mine certainly does, but I think yours was deprived of it at some point.

      So an acetylene-torch is an AI device?

      Building strawmen with oxy-acetylene blowtorches is a fire risk. Does the oxy-acetylene blowtorch attempt to model the operation of a human brain and provide a mechanism to examine, prove and/or disprove theories about the operation of the brain? No.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    44. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Oh ye of simple mind.

      Oh ye of simpler.

      "AI" is just fine. Its misuse is not. And I should have said "I am extremely tired of a certain type of person working in that field".

      Are you a computer? Do I need to be extra carefully specific in order to avoid compile time errors? What is your preferred replacement for the term AI for referring to the wide field which you think using AI for is an abuse of the term?

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    45. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      Artificial implies not real

      No it does not. All artificial means in this case is that it was not 'built and designed' by natural processes.

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    46. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      I apologize for reading too much science fiction and the nonfiction computer science, as well.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    47. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but Coke® disagrees.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    48. Re:There is no "working AI" at this time by Capt.Albatross · · Score: 1

      This new definition of AI is several steps down from what Minski, McCarthy and company were aiming for. While this work is the direct descendent of theirs, and is often significant and sometimes impressive in its own right, there is an odor of self-congratulatory aggrandizement about the current usage.

      In which case, there must have been an "odor of self-congratulatory aggrandizement" about Minsky (I haven't studied AI in general since 1998, but at least I know how to spell his name) because the guys working on it now are a lot nearer to what he was aiming for when he started out.

      Only if he claims to have achieved those original goals.

  3. A small vat of organic liquid? by QilessQi · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read this:

    Their quantum computing machine consists of a small vat of the organic liquid carbon-13-iodotrifluroethylene, a molecule consisting of two carbon atoms attached to three fluorine atoms and one iodine atom. Crucially, one of the carbon atoms is a carbon-13 isotope.

    And immediately thought of this:

    The principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by simply hooking the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer (say a nice hot cup of tea) were of course well understood ...

    God, I love how weird the future is.

    1. Re:A small vat of organic liquid? by chinton · · Score: 1

      Next up, Genuine People Personalities.

    2. Re:A small vat of organic liquid? by ray-auch · · Score: 1

      we already have those - look at all the 'bots posting on here for starters...

    3. Re:A small vat of organic liquid? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      In Soviet Russia, you imagine a Beowulf cluster of f*** beta, you Microsoft shill/Apple fanboi/Linux neckbeard.

      Simplest variation of the Turing test on the planet: imitating slashdot posters.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    4. Re:A small vat of organic liquid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      all the bots? there is one bot and it does all the story selection too, sheesh what else are you gonna do with a 1 thz processor with 1,000 virtual machines...

  4. Fuck you HAL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would. You. Like. To. Play. A. Game?

    1. Re:Fuck you HAL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe you should take a stress pill Dave

  5. Algorithms Class by chiefbutz · · Score: 0

    Brace yourself, quantum algorithm classes are coming.

    1. Re:Algorithms Class by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i think fuckerburg is wanting you to teach 2 year olds quantum computing

    2. Re:Algorithms Class by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Don't bother with the class, just read the book, "Distributed Node.JS.AI with Quantum Lambda's and HTML5 Unleashed for Complete Drooling Buzzword-Chasing Idiots"

  6. Read the Paper, article is exagerating "Quahtum" by Grantbridge · · Score: 4, Informative

    What they actually did if you read the paper is:

    1) Encode a 6 or 9 image into 2 numbers, based on the number of excess pixels in the left vs right, and top vs bottom quadrants. From the article: After these preprocessing, the two printed image with standard font can be represented by ~x1= (0:9872;0:1595) for character "6" and ~x2= (0:3544;0:9351) for character "9"

    2) Use a training algorithm to find the appropriate pulse sequence to give a up result from the molecule's NMR C13 spectra from a 6, and a down signal from a 9.

    3) Run the NMR spectrum, feed in pulses based on the parameters produced from pixels encoded in a vector form like 1), get the result of "up" for a 6 and "down" for a 9.

    It's certainly neat experimental NMR work, but I don't really see how it's quantum computing. But then maybe that's the NMR spectroscopist in me talking....

  7. Read the Paper, article is exagerating "Quantum" by Grantbridge · · Score: 1

    (I can't believe I didn't notice I misspelt Quantum in that subject field.)

  8. Skynet! by buggsdummy · · Score: 1

    When will you become self aware?

  9. Re:Crapchas! by Chromium_One · · Score: 1

    Feed it crapchas until it catches on!

    --
    When you live in a sick society, just about everything you do is wrong.
  10. Meow by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    It's smart and not smart at the same time.

  11. warning: more shitty medium.com links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can we get a link to a more reputable site?

  12. Re:There is no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >There's no 'intelligence', there's fancy pattern recognition.

    IQ tests are heavily based on (timed) pattern recognition.

    >Vending machines have been able to identify what kind of coin you put in for decades. That doesn't make them 'intelligent'.
    Why not?

    >I have no idea of the formal definition of AI,
    That would be a problem.

    > but to me without some form of abstract decision making and actually applying it to something, it's just clever automation

    It's taking a real-world pattern and deciding how to abstract it.

  13. Oh by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

    Oh... I was interested in this, and then saw it was Medium.com
    Meaning it would be overhyped nonsense and have nothing to do with the title of the story.
    Saddly, I was interested enough to read through it and prove my "Medium.com sux" theory is still correct.

  14. Re:There is no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But you forgot to include the word "imitate" in your highlight. Pattern recognition is most definitely imitating an intelligent human behavior.

  15. Obligatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, I for one welcome our new Quantum overlords.

  16. The most important computing result of our time by Scotland · · Score: 2

    Ho.

    Ly.

    Shit.

    15 or 20 years ago, I was saying that because quantum computers perform multiple calculations on similar inputs simultaneously, they'll be perfect for the sorts of pattern recognition tasks needed for (artificial) intelligence. And now these smart people have figured out how to do it for the first time, albeit with a miniscule 4 qubit quantum computer.

    But since quantum computing capabilities scale according to 2^n, where n is the number of qubits, a 24 qubit computer (i.e. 6 times the size of what they just built, requiring a molecule with 24 atoms) would be 2^20 = 1 million times as powerful as this 4 qubit computer just demonstrated. A 64 qubit computer would be 10^18 = 1 million million million times as powerful as this 4 qubit computer. Good-bye conventional computer encryption. And hello general-purpose pattern-recognition (i.e. the basis for strong artificial intelligence).

    My first thought was that a vat of "carbon-13-iodotrifluroethylene" isn't exactly a general purpose computing device -- except that because their control inputs are a stream of radio waves pulses controlled by a conventional computer, it actually is a general purpose computer. And though I'm no quantum physicist / quantum computer scientist, it seems like it would scale reasonably easily: you just need to find larger organic molecules with similarly discrete nuclear magnetic resonance 'channels' (i.e. independently manipulable/separable by frequency).

    I am beginning to sense the coming Kurzweil Singularity...

    1. Re:The most important computing result of our time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am beginning to sense the coming Kurzweil Singularity...

      This is a joke... right?

    2. Re:The most important computing result of our time by A+Pressbutton · · Score: 1

      part of the definition of a singularity is that you dont notice anything as you pass the boundary, but are unable to communicate with the other side.

    3. Re:The most important computing result of our time by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      I am beginning to sense the coming Kurzweil Singularity...

      I switched to Dragon Naturally Speaking years ago....

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  17. Re:Read the Paper, article is exagerating "Quantum by jfengel · · Score: 1

    That's OK, you also misspelled "exaggerating", so I didn't notice ;-)

    Mostly, yeah, it's pretty exaggerated as AI. It's potentially an interesting piece of work, but I always get skeptical when the PR departments feel they have to exaggerate.

  18. Re:Read the Paper, article is exagerating "Quahtum by msmonroe · · Score: 1

    Does the this mean that AI is only 20 years away?

  19. Polynomial time no big deal by mdtiemann · · Score: 1

    The /. summary says "The computational complexity of this task is such that the time required to solve it increases in polynomial time with the number of images in the training set and the complexity of the "learned" feature." Moore's Law is such that any polynomial time problem will be trivially solved by the exponential advances of Moore's Law. If this problem were exponential in nature, not polynomial, then quantum computing might be our only hope. But polynomial-time problems are not the sweet spot for quantum computers.

    1. Re:Polynomial time no big deal by ahto · · Score: 1

      The /. summary has copied the expression from the medium.com report. But if you read the paragraph this comes from, the description makes it clear they really mean the growth is exponential, they just use the wrong term and the /. submitter did not correct this either.

  20. Re:Read the Paper, article is exagerating "Quantum by Arkh89 · · Score: 1

    (I can't believe I didn't notice I misspelt Quantum in that subject field.)

    If you want to, we have this neat quantum computer which is capable of making the difference between 'n' and 'h'...It might be pricey but it is totally worth it...

  21. & on the subject of morality and AI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It occurred to me today that the fundamental question regarding the morality of AI in society is as follows (aside from the fact that it may be inevitable):

    Is it possible to dehumanise/machine a human to be less or equally "moral" than a machine.

    Is it possible to make a machine that is more or equally "moral" to a human?

    That's really a never ending argument but for me, but it seems that if you had both of these things above, you would have a machine that is more morally correct than a human. You could put a lot of care into a machine and make it more morally correct than an ISIS rebel beheader.

    The problem is not out technology, as portrayed in scare mongering movies like Terminator.
    The problem, as always, is us. Machines could only be bad if we make them bad.

    You could hardcode unbribeable integrity into a machine. You can't do that with a human. Humans can be broken, even if they snap just out of a pure 3rd. person out of body compassion for themselves as a human being, we can snap, or be corrupted if the chips are down, enough pressure.

    I was very skeptical of AI when I was young. I was brainwashed by Hollywood - that's all it is brainwashing. Technology can free people from mundane tasks and bring a level of fairness to society we could only dream of. Always fair and unbiased.

    I don't know if most humans will benefit from this, as there could be some mass outbreak like Ebola, economic/bankster catastrophes, food shortages, technological mistakes etc. that will curtail our present civilisation, but in the far distant future, I think the best way is for machines to run our lives. Machines, that are not human, but still very advanced intellectually. Not human at all. Humans aren't evolved enough to lead themselves into the future. We're evolved to survive and protect or families, our tribes. For the survival of a civilisation long term, you need something that's non human I feel.

  22. A small step, very small. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They took and existing technology and ran an existing algorithm on it to solve a trivial problem to prove an idea that was never in doubt.

  23. If Six Was Nine by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

    Clearly this demonstration was designed by someone who was searching for the deeper meaning of the work of Jimi Hendrix:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyGWbpNzH2o

  24. pfhor qubits you say? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When are we gonna hollow out Deimos and fly to Tau Ceti?