Mediaboss Marketing

Researchers are leveraging photonics to develop and scale the hardware necessary to tackle the stringent requirements of quantum information technologies. By exploiting the properties of photonics, researchers point to the benefits of scaling quantum hardware. If or when successful, researchers say quantum hardware at scale will enable long-range networks, interconnections between multiple quantum devices, and large-scale photonic circuits for quantum computing and simulation.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Denmark, Germany, and the UK is focusing on the best ways to use photonics and exploit its properties to develop a platform that can scale quantum hardware, Phys.Org reported. To this end, the team developed an integrated photonic platform based on thin-film lithium niobate, whose single crystals are important materials for optical waves and are an ideal modulator for low-loss mode.

Then, researchers interfaced the integrated photonic platform with deterministic solid-state single-photon sources based on quantum dots (semiconductor crystals) in nanophotonic waveguides. The resulting photons produced are processed with low-loss circuits, which according to the researchers are programmable at speeds of several gigahertz. Researchers state that fast reprogrammable low-loss optical circuits are key for performing tasks in photonic quantum information processing.

The high-speed platform paved the way for researchers to achieve several key photonic information processing functionalities. The first processing functionality researchers observed during experiments was on-chip quantum interference. Researchers used the Hong-OuMandel (HOM) effect, which is characterized as when two-photon interference is observed. Figure 1 displays the on-chip HOM experiments performed that tested the performance of the platform for photonic quantum information processing.

Another processing functionality the team demonstrated that is key to photonic information processing is an integrated single-photon router. Researchers demonstrated a fully on-chip photon router for the quantum dot-emitted photons. To accomplish this, they leveraged the platforms capability to integrate fast phase shifters with quantum emitter wavelengths to showcase the integrated single-photon router.

The team also implemented a universal four-mode interferometer, made up of a network of 6 Mach-Zehnder interferometers and 10 phase modulators, as shown in Figure 2. Programmable multimode quantum photonic interferometers are paramount for the implementation of essential functionalities of photonic quantum technologies. And, the researchers said they interferometers are able to realize circuits for quantum computational advantage experiments or analog quantum simulation.

In a research paper published by Science Advances, researchers detailed their development of the high-speed, integrated photonic platform based on thin-film lithium niobate. The paper is entitled High-speed thin-film lithium niobate quantum processor driven by a solid-state quantum emitter.

The authors argue the results showed that integrated photonics with solid-state deterministic photon sources is a promising option to scale quantum technologies in multiple phases. Going forward, the platform can be further optimized to reduce coupling and propagation loss. In particular, fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures (with loss levels of 10% per photon) are a step closer to reality.

The interdisciplinary team of researchers all come from international institutions including the Center for Hybrid Quantum Networks (Hy-Q), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); Institute of Physics, University of Muenster (Germany); CeNTechCenter for Nanotechnology (Germany); SoNCenter for Soft Nanoscience (Germany); Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London (UK); Ruhr University Bochum (Germany); and Heidelberg University (Germany).

See the rest here:
Researchers Develop Integrated Photonic Platform Based on Thin ... - HPCwire

Businesses must be more aware of the data requirements for artificial intelligence (AI), and use this period of focus on AI risks to prepare for the quantum computing threat.

Thats according to John Roese, global chief technology officer (CTO) at Dell, who shines a light on the main challenges businesses face when adopting AI models, and the lessons they can learn from the deployment of generative AI.

Roese acknowledges the computing bottleneck associated with training AI models, but denies this is the main hurdle holding businesses back when deploying the technology.

The bigger issue for an enterprise use of a large language model (LLM) is in order to train it, you have to have access to the right data and provide the data to the training infrastructure, he tells ITPro at Dell Technologies World 2023. Most customers have not done enough work on their data management.

As an example of good data management, Roese cites Dells work over the past four years to eliminate non-inclusive language from its content library and internal code environment. These include labels like whitelist and blacklist.

If an LLM was trained on the firms content repository, Roese explains, it would be unlikely to not incorporate the biases of these words. Firms that dont curate data before using it to train AI models intended for products such as chatbots could inadvertently create services that reflect an inherent racism or misogyny, as demonstrated by Microsofts Tay scandal.

Social Links Navigation

Roese has been global CTO for products and operations at Dell Technologies since September 2019. He worked in a similar capacity at Dell EMC for the previous seven years, first as CTO between 2012 and 2016, then as CTO and EVP for cross-product operations.

If you want to create a chatbot or an LLM that reflects your dataset, it will reflect your dataset the good, the bad, and the ugly and its important to know that you've created a dataset that is reflecting your values.

Roese also notes LLMs work best with unstructured data, as neural networks seek to create connections of their own rather than relying on arbitrary structures. As a result, he says, businesses need to ensure that their data is sitting in the right place to be used for training to avoid having to spend lots of time restructuring data down the line.

Are the majority of firms aware of these requirements at present? No, they're not, Roese admits. And that's very disturbing to be perfectly honest.

Generative AI has been hailed as one of the most significant technological developments of the century. At Dell Technologies World 2023, CEO Michael Dell compared it to the invention of the internet or PC.

Everybody's talking about generative AI as if it is the destination but it isnt."

In recent months, many have highlighted the risks of generative AI, with analysts calling it an existential threat, and pioneers calling for a temporary development pause.

But Roese recommends businesses use the big upheaval generative AI has triggered as a learning experience to better position themselves for future technologies that will disrupt the sector to a far greater extent.

Everybody's talking about generative AI as if it is the destination but it isnt, Roese stresses, arguing people are so shell-shocked by the headline-grabbing technology that they have failed to give proper thought to what comes next. The answer to that is actually quite simple in my mind, it's quantum, he continues.

The primary use case for quantum, Roese explains, is clear: quantum machine learning. He notes while generative AI is branded as disruptive and sparking fear in some, its just the logical progression of existing technologies.

Imagine if it now ran at five orders of magnitude higher performance. And that, inevitably, is coming.

What is the 'steal now, crack later' threat?

Although we don't expect quantum computers to be widely available for many years, cyber criminals are already stealing encrypted data in the hopes of gaining access in the future.

Read more

Maintaining cyber security in the face of developments in quantum computing is something that will become increasingly important as we approach the 2030s.

Experts suggest its a matter of if, not when, standards such as AES encryption break down, for example. Once encryption is cracked, the security of data will be wholly undermined.

The private sector isnt alone in the race to quantum, as many nation-states have already announced huge investments aimed at proactive quantum development and adoption.

In the Spring Statement, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced a 900 million ($1.1 billion) fund for quantum computing research, as part of a wider 2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) investment program for UK quantum.

Companies will have to navigate this disruption in the near future, Roese warns, and would do well to use the choppy waters of generative AI as a dress rehearsal for weathering the coming storm of quantum computing.

Read more:
Dell CTO: AI is nothing compared to the oncoming quantum storm - ITPro

Andres Davila | Asst. News Director

The Soviet influence on Cuba and the Caribbean is not to be forgotten as the Cuban Research Institute hosted a panel discussion on the history and its impacts on May 16 at Graham Center.

The discussion centered on the history of Soviet communist activities in the Caribbean region, with a notable focus on its increased expansion following infamous dictator Fidel Castros rise to power in Cuba.

Sebastian Arcos, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute, spoke about the vitality of this conversation prior to the event in an interview with PantherNOW.

Its important to understand the past so you can analyze and understand whats going on right now. Because many things that have happened before will happen again, said Arcos.

The panel included three guest speakers who are experts in both Cuban and Soviet history: Sandra Pujals, a history professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Lilian Guerra, history professor at the University of Florida, and Radoslav Yordanov, an associate for the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

Arcos would also warn that what happened in Cuba could happen in the United States.

Today, there are people who dismiss the idea something like what happened in Cuba could happen in the United States. And its a mistake. Democracy and freedom [are] something that you do every day, he said.

This is not a new statement; Venezuela resonates with Cuba as the Latin American nation is still under the power of dictator Nicols Maduro, who shares similar beliefs as Castro.

Even in the U.S., Republicans and Democrats have attacked each other with terms, such as fascists and communists respectively particularly as the 2024 elections loom.

Throughout the panel, the speakers examined the different aspects of how the Soviets came to Cuba and the Caribbean region to expand communist thoughts across the region. Professor Pujals began the talk with the history that expanded across Latin American cinema and other forms of media.

They [Caribbean figures] are all trained by the Soviets at the end of the 20s or beginning of the 30s. Even though they might break away from communism because of Stalinism, their visions had been created by this training that [had] to do with the Soviet presence in the region, said Pujals during the discussion.

This is a reference to how Soviet thinking was impacted across cinema, mentioning two figures that were notable for maintaining the vision of communism, but breaking away from them: Seki Sano, who is deemed The Father of Mexican Theater, and Claude McKay, an advocate for civil liberties in Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.

Moreover, Professor Guerra discussed how she began her research on Cuban history, touching upon her book Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance, 1959-1971. She brought up how Cuban education was incorporated by Marxist ideals, being backed up as Castro promoted these ideals to schoolchildren.

The idea was to achieve a communist personality in every child and so this also extended to the selection of teachers having Marxist principles, said Guerra in the discussion.

Professor Lilian Guerra presenting her research on communism in Cuba | Andres Davila, PantherNOW

Expanding more on the Soviet impacts, Professor Yordanov emphasized that even though the Caribbean region had major influences from those beliefs, it was expanding heavily in Eastern Europe. [the Caribbean region had more Soviet influence based on their relation with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.]

Belgrade wasnt all of that by any stretch of imagination. Bucharest is equally wary of [the coup] and relationships that existed only Castro might have and he was not so straightforward, said Professor Yordanov at the event.

He refers to the 1944 Romanian coup detat which was a tactic for the Soviet Union to gain more territory, as well as the influence on communism in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, happening simultaneously.

This generates more evidence of Castros relationship with the Soviet Union, thus leading to the buildup of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Revolution.

After multiple aspects of what communism came to be in Cuba, Sebastian Arcos hopes that this brings more attention to how the United States should approach their relationship with Cuba.

The United States should promote free trade [among] more Latin American nations. [They] shall be open up to free trade [because] the idea that we should protect our own markets because we are a rich country [is] actually a bad idea for capitalism and democracy overall.

Read more:
Communism: FIU event discusses Soviet influence in Cuba and the ... - PantherNOW

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that if any other country wanted to join the Russia-Belarus union, there could be nuclear weapons for everyone.

The defense ministers of Russia and Belarus on Thursday signed a document on the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russian...

Last week, Russia moved ahead with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, in the Kremlins first deployment of such warheads outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, spurring concerns in the West.

In an interview published on Russias state television late on Sunday, Lukashenka said that it must be strategically understood that Minsk and Moscow have a unique chance to unite.

He further pointed out that Kazakhstan should also join the Union State of Russia and Belarus. No one is against Kazakhstan and other countries having the same close relations that we have with the Russian Federation, the Belarusian dictator said.

If someone is worried ... [then] it is very simple: join in the Union State of Belarus and Russia. Thats all, there will be nuclear weapons for everyone, he emphasized.

On Sunday, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said that another unit of the S-400 mobile, surface-to-air missile systems arrived from Moscow, with the systems to be ready for combat duty soon.

source: Reuters

Original post:
Nuclear communism: Lukashenka offers 'nukes for everyone' - TVP World

Translator Angela Rodel, left, and author Georgi Gospodinov have won the 2023 International Booker Prize for Time Shelter. They are pictured above in London on May 23, 2023. David Parry/The Booker Prizes hide caption

Translator Angela Rodel, left, and author Georgi Gospodinov have won the 2023 International Booker Prize for Time Shelter. They are pictured above in London on May 23, 2023.

This year's winner of the The International Booker Prize is a unique spin on time travel. The novel Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, with a translation by Angela Rodel, imagines the 'first clinic of the past,' in which Alzheimer's patients can visit different time periods of their lives on different floors.

"One day, when this business really takes off," therapist Gaustine tells the narrator, a writer, "we'll create these clinics or sanatoriums in various countries. The past is also a local thing. There'll be houses from various years everywhere, little neighborhoods, one day we'll even have small cities, maybe even a whole country. For patients with failing memories, Alzheimer's, dementia, whatever you want to call it. For all of those who already are living solely in the present of their past."

In its review of Time Shelter, The Guardian wrote, "From communism to the Brexit referendum and conflict in Europe, this funny yet frightening Bulgarian novel explores the weaponisation of nostalgia."

Gospodinov's novel was chosen from a shortlist of six books from around the world.

"Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel," wrote the International Booker Prize jury, "Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov's reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, and a major voice in international literature."

Unlike the original Booker Prize which rewards novels written in English, the International Booker Prize honors fiction translated into English from around the world. This is the first time a Bulgarian novel has won.

Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel will share the prize money of roughly $62,ooo equally. In addition, the shortlisted authors and translators each receive approximately $3,000.

Time Shelter is Gospodinov's third novel to be published in English. A poet and playwright, he is the most translated writer from Bulgaria to emerge since the fall of communism.

Literary translator Angela Rodel is a Minnesota native who lives in Bulgaria. In addition to Time Shelter, she translated Gospodinov's novel The Physics of Sorrow, as well as a short story collection by Bulgarian writer Georgi Tenev.

In a statement, Gospodinov said, "It is commonly assumed that 'big themes' are reserved for 'big literatures,' or literatures written in big languages, while small languages, somehow by default, are left with the local and the exotic. Awards like the International Booker Prize are changing that status quo, and this is very important."

Original post:
Georgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel win International Booker ... - NPR