Technology is fast evolving and it seems that it can’t be stopped by any of us. After all, we live and breathe technology these days. That’s just how dependent modern life has become to tech advancements. You think you’ve seen it all but no, there is so much more to explore and develop when it comes to technology. We are just at the brink of its further evolution and experts aren’t even sure humanity is ready for what is awaiting us in the years to come.
There is one thing for sure though, we don’t have to wait for long to see for ourselves how these new technologies unfold and become a part of our daily lives. And we can count on Microsoft to ensure we don’t have a hard time coping with these new changes because they’ve already prepared a coding program for quantum computing as early as now. The average Joe probably finds it impossible to grasp how quantum computers work, which makes Microsoft’s initiative more instrumental in helping people understand the inner workings of quantum computing so we won’t have that much of a hard time adjusting once it becomes accessible to the public.
Microsoft is effectively building a language for computers that don’t really exist yet. The most advanced experimental machine, a 16/17 qubit model, was built by IBM and has run over 300,000 experiments. It’s far from being ready for commercial applications, though. Big Blue recently unveiled an initiative to build commercial quantum computers called IBM Q, and has already released its own programming tools via an API called the IBM Quantum Experience.
Microsoft’s programming language doesn’t have a name yet, but the company already has plans for quantum computing in AI. In particular, it thinks that the machines could be used to train its Cortana digital assistant in days instead of months. “Even if everything else was the same, Cortana would improve 30 times faster,” Microsoft’s research chief Craig Mundie says.
(Via: https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/26/microsoft-new-coding-language-is-made-for-quantum-computers/)
Many of today’s brilliant minds in all aspects of science, computer, and technology have teamed up in further developing this program because it’s not an easy feat to do, that we can be sure of. If you look at it, this program is actually made for a device that isn’t available to us yet. The company has not even coined a name for it yet, so it’s pretty much anonymous up to the time being.
At the Microsoft Ignite conference today, the expert panel on stage burst into laughter. “This box right over here behind us – nothing! That’s a quantum joke, that’s an excellent joke,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow Michael Freedman as the curtain failed to open to reveal it.
It being a quantum joke, the audience in Orlando, Florida, was a little slow to catch on. Quantum computing uses qubits, which unlike conventional bits can be in a superposition of one and zero at the same time, enabling the extremely rapid parallel processing of data. A box that is both present and not present, how appropriate.
Math problems that would take a lifetime on today’s computer architectures to solve may be cracked in hours using a quantum machine, enthused the Windows giant. “It would be so powerful it’s able to model nature itself.”
(Via: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/25/microsoft_talks_quantum_computing_and_ai/)
Experts are hoping that even though quantum computing is still not entirely our reality, it will hopefully be realized in the coming years and solve many of today’s problems that are still without a solution until now. It may even offer the solution to climate change problems we are facing today along with agricultural and health issues that plague our daily existence. If quantum computing has its pros, it also has its cons. Encryption comes to mind as it is something quantum computers can easily crack but is also a measure that enforces cyber security right now, so that may raise some red flags when the time comes. But some would rather cross the bridge when we get there.
Artificial intelligence is the direction we are all heading. It is inevitable for that time to come and Microsoft just wants to establish themselves as an innovative and cutting-edge company that is ready to take on this new and uncharted path all the while making preparations as early as today.