With its eyes set on artificial intelligence, Google launches quantum processor

US tech giant Google launches quantum processor for application in the field of artificial intelligence.

Tech giant Google is launching a new research project on quantum processors with the intention of using the information in the field of artificial intelligence. Google has partnered with the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) in their latest research endeavor. The announcement came from Google’s Director of Engineering, Hartmut Neven in a blog post on Google.

The research team is led by John Martinis, a physicist at the University of California Santa Barbara. Hartmut described John’s team to have made “great strides” in their research and Martinis himself was awarded the London Prize for “pioneering advances in quantum control and quantum information processing.”

Quantum computing tries understanding the behavior of sub-atomic particles, unlike standard computer that are use binary data. The quantum equivalent of a bit – qubit – can exploit all combinations of bits which might increase the speed and power of computers.

Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab is a collaboration between NASA Ames Research Center, Google and the Universities Space Research Association, and will host the team from UCSB while they work on their research. Martinis will have full access to the UCSB facility, as he will be an employee of both Google and the university.

Google has been working on self-driving cars and robots and is recently begun to show interest in the field of artificial intelligence. In January 2014, Google had bought a private artificial intelligence company DeepMind Technologies Ltd.

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