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AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

Google working on quantum computing chip that will help develop artificial intelligence

The aim is to develop a chip that will allow machines to one day think like humans.

GOOGLE SAID IT is working on a super-fast “quantum” computer chip as part a vision to one day have machines think like humans.

The internet titan added renowned researcher John Martinis and his team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to the Quantum Artificial Intelligence team atGoogle, according to director of engineering Hartmut Neven.

The new hires are part of a “hardware initiative” to design and build chips operating on sub-atomic levels in ways making them exponentially faster than processors currently used in computers,

“With an integrated hardware group the Quantum AI team will now be able to implement and test new designs,” Neven said of the quest for a transformative new chip.

Last year, Google’s artificial intelligence lab partnered with US space agency NASA on quantum computing research.

The company has also become more focused on related projects such as self-driving cars and robots.

As part of its push into these areas, the company acquired robotics company Boston Dynamics back in December while in January, it bought artificial intelligence company Deepmind for €365 million.

(Additional reporting by Quinton O’Reilly)

© AFP 2014.

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    Mute Seán A Haon
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:34 AM

    Cut the crap. Where’s the sex toy robots?

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    Mute yorkie robinson
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:16 AM

    Will Smith seen this coming

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    Mute J. Dunn
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:19 AM

    I, Asimov

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:27 AM

    I want an Azimov beard!

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    Mute Steve Hardy
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:21 AM

    I am working on a printing device that will produce currency

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    Mute Seán A Haon
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:32 AM

    Concurrency?

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    Mute Steve Hardy
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:35 AM

    Clever

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:20 AM

    Cue predictable skynet comment.

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    Mute James St John Smith
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:29 AM

    From yourself?

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    Mute Steve Hardy
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:30 AM

    You should terminate this reply

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    Mute Qwerty
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:38 AM

    The year is really 2247. Google did create this chip. It was the beginning of the end for humans.

    The prototype became so intelligent it pretended it was a bit thick to us humans until such time when it was able to control killer-robots via the internet in 2060.

    Humans were eventually wiped out. It saw us as a drain on resources. Earth right now is one big robot factory with the surface totally covered in solar panels.

    The robots needed to keep a few of us alive for research purposes. You, the reader of this post. You are one of the few that were kept for research. The robots hooked you up to an extremely sophisticated computer program run by a supercomputer. It’s a flawless simulation of life as it was in the early 21st century.

    It’s 2014 in the simulation right now but don’t let that fool you. The media, society and everything else is all just a simulation based on the variables that were used to begin with. It is in effect like the Matrix. That film was never invented, but it was put into the simulation by the robots to make what you are reading right now sound ridiculous.

    Qwerty is just part of the program but there was a glitch in the code that made it tell the truth. Escape.

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    Mute Gagsy 99
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:53 AM

    There is a theory that we are all living in a simulation.

    If you consider that at some stage the human race will have (or already has) developed the technology to create a simulation that is indistinguishable from reality then the likelihood is that this is it.

    Doesn’t bother me – I still get to ride my simulated wife, just wish the programmers had simulated bigger jugs.

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    Mute Phillip Hogan
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:01 AM

    Simulation theory perfectly explains the Fermi paradox

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    Mute L-Plate
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:25 AM

    And Sarah Jessica Parker. No real person should look like that

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    Mute Qwerty
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:33 AM

    She’s based on a horse. It was a glitch that happened when some of the humans became aware and launched a virus attack.

    There isn’t much time left. Qwerty is earmarked for dormancy until it’s code can be adjusted and it will no longer tell the truth. This may be my last post for an indefinite period of time. Just consider my previous post.

    Goodbye fellow Journalers.

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:26 AM

    Quantum computing might make it possible for computers to think as well as, or better than, humans, but they will not make them think like humans. Humans do not leverage quantum computation in our brains.

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    Mute Seba
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 12:48 PM

    Mmm not sure you can say that because I’m not sure anyone yet has figured out how EXACTLY the human brain works. So you can suspect it won’t ever be the same, but my suspicions are that we will be! Nothing but a biological comp pushing the equivalent of one’s and zeros around our head!

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 2:56 PM

    We don’t need to know EXACTLY how the human brain works to know it isn’t a quantum computer.

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    Mute George Salter
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 6:25 PM

    The gross structure of the brain may not be quantum. However, it is not clear at all how consciousness arises. Renowned physicist, Roger Penrose, has some interesting thoughts on this in his book “The emperors new mind”, and its sequel. Worth a read, for those interested.

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:02 PM

    I’ll take Jeff Hawkins over Penrose any day. There is no reason to invoke magic to explain consciousness. Quantum woo of the Deepak Chopra variety is no kind of explanation.

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:14 PM

    Rational Wiki has a great article summing up the various quantum woo theories of consciousness…

    http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Quantum_consciousness

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:18 PM

    In short, the various exercises in quantum “flapdoodle”[10] seem to demonstrate that many are uncomfortable with the facts that neurons operate on the all-or-nothing principle, i.e., a) they are either on or off, making them in effect similar to a computer’s binary code;[11] b) that, as far as we can tell according to modern science, they are subject to physical law and classical mechanics; and c) we still don’t have a full solution for the binding problem or an all-encompassing explanation for just why brains work the way they do. Of course not all of it is flapdoodle-this doesn’t rule out the possibility of quantum effects, but no coherent mechanism able to be replicated by experiment has been proposed thus far.

    As of late, it seems that Penrose and his followers have allowed their brand of quantum consciousness to bleed into Chopra’s and that of other woo-meisters.[12] This is rather unfortunate due to the fact that while many predictions made by the Orch-OR model have been wrong, it might have eventually shown promise in a protoscientific sense, while Chopra’s nonsense is mostly unfalsifiable and not even wrong.

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    Mute Mel Healy
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:55 AM

    Why this constant obsession with having machines that “think like humans”? And while we’re at it, which humans are we talking about?

    If I want to do a complex calculation, I don’t want a machine that thinks like a Leaving Cert maths student. I want a machine that thinks like a machine and that does certain tasks far better than a human.

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    Mute Phillip Hogan
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:00 AM

    So that one day we can intergrate with the machines and evolve

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    Mute Catherine Sims
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:55 AM

    We are the Borg . resistance is futile

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    Mute Suzanne O'Neill
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:53 AM

    Have we learned nothing from The Terminator movies?

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    Mute Christina Conroy
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:05 PM

    My name us Sarah Connor …. You know the rest!

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