Thinking Ahead About Quantum Computing

It’s not too early to begin thinking about quantum computing use cases, as NTT President and CEO Kazuhiro Gomi suggests in his most recent article in Forbes. The first task is to consider the different approaches. One involves the use of quantum gates, and one particular quantum-gate approach uses the approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). And then there is the Ising model, one variant of which is similar to QAOA, but instead of using gate-based quantum processes, builds a network of artificial “spins” using Coherent Ising Machines (CIMs). Potential use cases include drug discovery, logistics and machine learning or recognition. A likely scenario will involve a coexistence between quantum and classical computing, with the former being used as an accelerator and the latter to run task scheduling and human-machine interface. To learn more about these use cases, please take a look at the article, “Quantum Computing: Limits, Options and Applications.”