2023年1月17日

今天的设备会因为最轻微的环境干扰而失效。Algorithmiq正在开发方法来抵消这种情况，并利用量子的力量。量子计算机有一个巨大的问题。或者，更准确地说，是许多难以置信的微小分子。通过利用量子不确定性的力量，这些未来的设备有望彻底改变从金融行业到药物发现的一切——量子计算机使用量子位，而不是像笔记本电脑或手机那样使用比特，这意味着它们能够比传统计算机更快地执行某些任务，并且可能更好地模拟自然过程。包括谷歌、微软和IBM在内的科技巨头正在竞相制造量子设备，但该领域总体上陷入了一个被商界称为“噪声-中间尺度量子”(NISQ)的时代。今天的量子计算机是一种精密的设备，最轻微的环境干扰就会使其偏离轨道:它们速度慢，规模小，而且不那么准确，这意味着现在它们有点没用。Sabrina Maniscalco希望能改变这一现状。她是Algorithmiq的联合创始人兼首席执行官，Algorithmiq是为数不多的几家为我们今天使用的嘈杂量子计算机开发软件的初创公司之一。她说:“近期设备的软件和算法是揭示和解锁有用工业应用的关键。” The company emerged from research at the University of Helsinki, where Maniscalco is a professor of quantum information, computing, and logic, after stints in South Africa, Edinburgh, and her native Sicily. “It started with us trying to figure out the best applications for these very noisy, early-stage quantum computers,” she says. They settled on the problem of “noise.” Algorithmiq is developing ways to counteract the noise that afflicts quantum computers: not the whir of a cooling fan, but the tiny environmental changes that can nudge qubits out of a delicate state called superposition. It’s this state—which can be roughly thought of as not 0 or 1, but both at the same time—that makes quantum computers so powerful, but also so difficult to build. Algorithmiq is figuring out sophisticated methods to model noise and mitigate against it so that early-stage devices can be used for experiments. To begin with, the company is focusing on chemistry simulations—a promising potential use case for quantum computers because they mimic the uncertainty of nature. It’s benchmarking its noise reduction algorithms by simulating molecules such as dichromium—which is simple enough to be simulated with current quantum computers but complex enough to show the power of these devices. Maniscalco says Algorithmiq—which recently announced a partnership with IBM—is planning to apply the same principles to more complex structures in the future, with potential applications that include drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry. “We think of ourselves as the first quantum biotech company,” she says. This article was originally published in the January/February 2023 issue of WIRED UK magazine. Most Popular