Name: Insights: The Vast Potential of Quantum Computing
Uploaded: 2020-03-12
Duration: 3 min 14 s
Description: Microsoft's principal quantum research manager, Krysta Svore, explains.

 ROBERT HACKETT: I've got an iPhone. I can order pizza with it. I can binge watch Stranger Things. Why should I care about a quantum computer? KRYSTA SVORE: Well, it turns out there's some problems in this world that we can never hope to solve with the computers we have today. Even if you take all the supercomputing and all of your digital technologies and put them together, there still remain problems that take a lifetime of the universe timescales even using all of that compute to solve. And these problems are really important problems for our world, for our society, things like, how do we capture carbon from the atmosphere to help save our planet? How do we better handle clean energy also to help save our planet? And how do we do better food production around the world? Quantum computers can help with all of these types of problems, problems that really do take lifetime in the universe timescales to solve on digital technology and then just a matter of weeks or months on a quantum computer. ROBERT HACKETT: Which aspect is most exciting for you? You listed a few topics out there-- the climate crisis, tackling that challenge, drug discovery. What is most personally exciting for you? KRYSTA SVORE: Yeah, well, most recently, actually just today, we announced some work we've done with Case Western Reserve University. And this is in the space of medical diagnoses. You think about every one of us knows someone who has been diagnosed with a severe disease, whether it's cancer, or multiple sclerosis, or epilepsy. And in these technologies, we're working with Case Western Reserve University and Mark Griswold there to bring about revolutions in terms of MRI and magnetic resonance fingerprinting techniques. And with quantum-inspired algorithms, we can actually improve the speed of MRI. So the detection rates, you can actually have an MRI scan that is three times faster than it is today and 30% more accurate. And this allows you to then pick out different tissues much more accurately, identify disease early, see if chemotherapy's working. And all of this is using quantum techniques to speed this up. ROBERT HACKETT: You used a phrase in there, "quantum inspired," which is interesting, because we don't have the hardware really itself, at least to a point where it's going to outperform what we have already. So what makes something quantum inspired? How can we call it quantum if we're still running this stuff on classical machines? KRYSTA SVORE: Well, it turns out that we can actually look to quantum computing. And we can learn a lot from those-- how those computers and those algorithms behave and how quantum mechanics behaves. And we can take ideas from quantum mechanics and physics. And we can simulate them on our classical machines. And by simulating what these quantum mechanical behaviors are within, say, a classical algorithm, we can achieve speedups. And what's even better is once we have the full-scale quantum computer, we can take these same algorithms and speed them up even further using the full-scale quantum computer. So these are methods inspired by the full quantum algorithm but that we can use today on classical machines. 

Insights: The Vast Potential of Quantum Computing 

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Microsoft's principal quantum research manager explains.

The Vast Potential of Quantum Computing 

Microsoft's principal quantum research manager, Krysta Svore, explains.

I've got an iPhone. I can order pizza with it. I can binge watch strangers thing. Why should I care about a quantum computer? Well, it turns out there's some problems in this world that we can never hope to solve with the computers we have today, right? Even if you take all the supercomputing and all of your digital technologies and put them together, they're still remained problems that take a lifetime of the universe. Timescales, even using all of that compute solved. And the problem is, they're really important problems for our world, for our society, right? Things like, how do we capture carbon from the atmosphere to help lever save our planet, Right. How do we better handle clean energy, right? Also to help save our planet. And how do we do better food production around the world? Quantum computers can help with all of these types. Problems promise. That really do take a lifetime in the universe. Time scales to solve on digital technology. And then, just a matter of weeks or months on a quantum computer, which aspect is most exciting for you? You listed a few topics out there. The climate crisis, you know, tackling that challenge. Drug discovery. What is most personally exciting for you? Yeah, well, most recently, actually. Just today we announced, uh, some work we've done with case Western Reserve University. And this is in the space of medical diagnoses, right? You think about, you know, every one of us knows someone who has been diagnosed with a severe disease, whether it's cancer or multiple sclerosis or epilepsy on in these technologies were working with Case Western Reserve University and Mark Griswold there to bring about revolutions in terms of M. R. I and a magnetic president fingerprinting technique. And with quantum inspired algorithms, we can actually improve the speed of them are I write the detection rate. You can actually have a memory scan that is three times faster than it is today and 30% more accurate. And this allows you to then pick out different tissues much more accurately identified disease early, see if chemotherapy is working. And all of this is using quantum technique. To speed this up, you used a freezing their quantum and spired, which is kind of interesting because we don't have the hardware really itself, at least to a point where it's gonna perform outperforming we have already. So what makes something quantum inspired? How can we call it quantum if we're still running the stuff on classical machines? Well, it turns out, but, you know, we can actually look to quantum computing, and we can learn a lot from the how those computers and the algorithms behaved and how quantum mechanics behaved right. We could take ideas from quantum mechanics and physics, and we can simulate them on our classical machines. And by simulating what these quantum mechanical behaviors are within a classical algorithm, we can achieve speed up. And what's what's even better is, once we have the full scale quantum computer, we can take these same algorithms and speed up, speed them up even further, using the full scale quantum computer. So these air methods, inspired by the full quantum algorithm but that we can use today on classical machines