Workshop on Quantum Technology Applications and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Perspectives for the Near Future
One hundred years ago, Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan introduced the first mathematically formulated version of quantum mechanics. Shortly thereafter, Schrödinger proposed an alternative description of nature. These two seemingly different formulations were eventually shown to be equivalent.
The first quantum revolution profoundly influenced nearly every aspect of culture—including physics, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and literature. However, its most transformative impact was on technology. Indeed, almost every device we use today relies on microelectronics, whose fundamental laws are rooted in the quantum realm.
Nowadays, the rapid experimental progress in quantum control is driving the so-called ‘second quantum revolution’, in which technologies capable of manipulating individual quantum systems are becoming applicable. These advances promise significant impact in many key areas, such as quantum cryptography and computation, quantum teleportation, frequency standard improvement, and quantum phase-estimation–based metrology.
Both theoretical and experimental challenges lie in improving our ability to manipulate quantum states (kets) while preserving their distinctive quantum features—such as entanglement—during the interactions required for experimental implementation and in the presence of unavoidable coupling with the environment.
In 1936, Alan Turing, with the Turing machine, gave rise to the idea that thinking could be programmed. John McCarthy coined the term 'Artificial Intelligence' during the 1956 Dartmouth Conference (USA). In those years, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon created the Logic Theorist, the first program capable of solving logical problems, while John McCarthy developed the LISP programming language, which was fundamental to AI for decades.
The beautiful dream of the thinking machine might have remained just that if the first quantum revolution hadn't led to the birth of microelectronics. The realization of high-performance computing, based on increasingly faster computers and the development of more and more advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms, has made that dream one of the most versatile and useful tools.
An unimaginable step forward will be accomplished in the near future, when the second quantum revolution impacts artificial intelligence — through quantum computers on one side and quantum deep learning on the other.
The aim of this conference is to illustrate and discuss some of the applications emerging from the second quantum revolution across different fields including artificial intelligence.