SAN FRANCISCO White House officials on Monday unveiled plans to increase federal funding for the development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, two cutting-edge technologies that defense officials say will play a key role in national security.

The funding, part of the Trump administrations $4.8 trillion budget proposal, would direct more money for A.I. research to the Defense Department and the National Science Foundation. The administration also wants to spend $25 million on what it calls a national quantum internet, a network of machines designed to make it much harder to intercept digital communication.

For several years, technologists have urged the Trump administration to back research on artificial intelligence which could affect things as diverse as weapons and transportation and quantum computing, a new way to build super-powerful computers. Chinas government, in particular, has made building these machines a priority, and some national security experts worry that the United States is at risk of falling behind.

The proposed spending follows earlier administration moves. In 2018, President Trump signed a law that earmarked $1.2 billion for quantum research. The Energy Department recently began distributing its portion of that money about $625 million to research labs in industry, academia and government.

The dollars we have put into quantum information science have increased by about fivefold over the last three years, said Paul Dabbar, under secretary for science at the Energy Department, in an interview.

Last year, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that made A.I. research and development a national priority.

The new budget proposal would increase funding for artificial intelligence research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Defense Department, to $249 million from $50 million, and at the National Science Foundation to $850 million from about $500 million. The administration also vowed to double funding for A.I. and quantum computing research outside the Defense Department by 2022.

Big tech companies have invested heavily in A.I. research over the last decade. But many experts have worried that universities and government labs have lost much of their talent to businesses. Under the new funding plan, the National Science Foundation would apply $50 million to help train A.I. experts.

The worlds biggest technology companies, from Google in the United States to Alibaba in China, are also racing to build a quantum computer, a new kind of machine that could be used to break the encryption that protects digital information. Researchers are using the same scientific principles to create new technology that could withstand such an attack.

In 2017, after four years of planning and construction, China unveiled a dedicated quantum communication network between Beijing and Shanghai. Two Chinese provinces invested $80 million in the project. It has also tested quantum encryption techniques via satellite.

With the $25 million, the Energy Department would build a network connecting its 17 national research labs, which include Los Alamos in New Mexico and Argonne outside Chicago. Using this test network, researchers would explore quantum encryption technologies with an eye toward creating a secure network across the country.

This is a test bed for new technologies, said David Awschalom, a professor at the University of Chicago who oversees much of the universitys quantum research and would play a role in the effort at the national labs. We are using the power of the national labs to fuel the country.

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White House Earmarks New Money for A.I. and Quantum Computing - The New York Times

Buried within the 13,000-odd words of the Union Budget speech on Saturday was a paragraph that set aside 8,000 crore over five years for the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. Most commentators seem to have either missed or overlooked this budgetary allocation, but in terms of significance, the implications are well worth considering.

More than two years ago, the department of science and technology launched the Quantum-Enabled Science and Technology (QuEST) programme with an aim to develop technical capacity within the country to build quantum computers and communications systems comparable with the best in the world. The first phase of the project was to build the infrastructure and acquire human resources to develop physical and computation structures for improving precision in quantum measurement. The eventual goal is to build quantum computers domestically.

Though the allocation in this years budget is clearly part of a long-term national strategy, I cannot help wonder whether it is, at least in some small measure, a response to Googles recent announcement that it had achieved quantum supremacy"the ability to perform a calculation on a quantum computer that is impossible on a conventional computer. And the fear that we might, once again, be falling behind.

As much as I enjoy science, quantum mechanics gives me a headache. Quantum computing is an order of magnitude more perplexing. Ordinary computers function using binary logic gates that can be either off or on. This is why classical computers store information in bitseither as a 0 or 1. On the other hand, quantum computers can store information as both a 0 and a 1 at the same time using a quantum property called superposition. This means that with two quantum bits (or qubits), information can be stored in four possible states of superposition, and as more qubits are added, the computational power grows exponentially.

While this gives us more computing power, quantum computers are error-prone. The quantum state is delicate. It lasts for a fraction of a second and is easily disrupted by tiniest of vibrations or variations in temperature. This noise" in calculations causes mistakes to occur, and unless we can make them sufficiently error-free, quantum computing will not be commercially viable. Googles breakthrough was to achieve sufficient control over the process to allow its experimental computer to outperform a traditional computer. As a result, its computer could solve in 200 seconds what would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.

We still have a long way to go before quantum computing becomes commercially viable, but there is reason for urgency. As soon as quantum computing becomes commercially viable, much of what we take for granted today will become irrelevant.

Take encryption, for example. Almost all digital security today is based on the RSA algorithm that encrypts messages by relying on the factorization of two large prime numbers. While it is easy to multiply two prime numbers, it is very difficult to factorize them. RSA encryption exploits this feature, making it impossible for even governments and private actors with near infinite computational resources to decrypt messages. This is why we have the confidence to store valuable information in encrypted archives on the cloud, secure in the knowledge that even the largest corporations and most technologically advanced governments dont have the computational capability to decrypt these databases and access the information stored inside.

Once quantum computers are capable of being used for decryption, the computational hurdles of prime number factorization that we now rely on will become trivial to overcome. Shors algorithm already describes a process by which quantum computers could be used find the prime factors of any integer. In 2001, IBM proved that this algorithm works by using a 7 qubit computer to factorize the number 15 into 5 and 3. Googles Sycamore processor harnessed 53 qubits in its latest experiment, demonstrating that much higher computational capabilities are already within our grasp. Once our quantum computers have reached a sufficiently advanced level of stability, even the highest encryption known to man will be easy to defeat.

When that happens, cyber security as we know it will be a thing of the past. All the secure data services that we rely on will be thrown wide open, allowing anyone with a quantum computer to easily access the information within. Given the imminence of major breakthroughs in quantum computing, it is rumoured that there is already an underground market for encrypted data in anticipation of a time when all this information can be decrypted and the secrets of famous personalities can be exposed.

In the war for quantum supremacy, it is those who can understand and use the fundamental technologies behind quantum computing who will emerge dominant. In the not-so-distant future, the world will be divided into the quantum haves and have-nots. It is imperative that India makes every effort to stay in the game if it is to have any hope of remaining relevant. If we are to retain any measure of technological independence, we will need to ramp up our research in quantum computing and actively invest in the development of indigenous quantum computational capabilities.

Rahul Matthan is a partner at Trilegal and author of Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data Driven Future

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Opinion | Prepare for a world of quantum haves and have-nots - Livemint

The mysterious quantum realm, or at least a Hollywood version of it, made its way into pop culture via the recent superhero film, Ant-Man. The hero shrinks down to a subatomic level even smaller than atoms and encounters a bizarre world that warps space and time in unpredictable ways.

At such miniscule scales, the fundamental laws of physics simply break down. But scientists have found ways to store information in individual electrons, making quantum communications possible. Or, they can measure the positions of atoms in incredibly precise ways to design navigation systems.

Were working on a navigation system based on quantum physics, that will be so accurate that you dont need any more GPS, explains Marko Erman, the Global Chief Scientific Officer of French defence and aerospace giant, Thales. He shares the real-world potential of this mysterious, but exciting field.

Beyond the electrons

Quantum physics will shape Thales trajectory over the coming years, says Erman. At least two-thirds of their business will be impacted in some way by new quantum devices and systems in the next 5-10 years, he announced in November at the Saclay research and technology cluster in the south of Paris.

Quantum sensors, quantum communications and quantum computing are the three main areas of focus in Thales research collaborations with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Universit Paris-Saclay. It is theoretically possible to build sensors that are ten thousand times more accurate; develop new energy sources; and create ultra-secure communications.

When people built atomic clocks, they never thought about global positioning systems. They didnt make the connection, says Erman. He was referring to quantum positioning, which can determine the position of a moving object with an almost absolute precision. Imagine being able to navigate submarines or underground vehicles without a satellite connection. Its possible, below seawater, Erman continues.

This technology has potential in the air too. If the GPS is not working on a plane, the pilot would be able to land at the destination with an accuracy of up to 20 kilometres, based only on the onboard inertia system, according to Erman. With a quantum positioning system however, it can land with the precision of within a metre. And in the military, quantum sensors within radar systems could help pilots detect suspicious flying objects or drones much more accurately in crowded airspace.

There are also quantum applications in the medical field. Take cancer treatment, for example. Current therapies can be destructive towards healthy cells, and not very targeted. Quantum devices could turn this on its head, and allow doctors to zoom in on individual diseased cells. I think the next phase of bio science is personalisation and going down to the cellular level; this would not be possible without quantum devices, Erman explains.

The burgeoning quantum innovation space holds great potential to transform the world as we know it. Right now, it is not particularly constrained by much regulation, Erman notes. Unlike genetics or artificial intelligence, which have a lot of debate about the societal impact and ethics, quantum escapes from that.

Research in Asia

Besides its huge focus on quantum innovation, Thales is continuing to build on research in its traditional verticals. Singapore is Thales only Asia research hub, where the company works with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on space research such as nanosatellite technology.

The city was chosen as it is very dynamic, is very high tech oriented, according to Erman. Whats more, the government wants to push innovation and there are problems that are unique because of the size, the mission, he continues. Its an interesting place to be.

Singapore is also where you have land, air, sea, and you can basically address all aspects in one place, adds Herve Jarry, Chief Technical Officer of Thales Solutions Asia. I think also with the proximity of people, different agencies, it is quite easy to interact.

In September 2019, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore has announced a S$30 million Joint Aviation Innovation Research Lab with Thales to build advanced air traffic management technologies. These are meant to augment air traffic controllers abilities in a stressful environment, Jarry explains.

Weve been doing some work for instance with the ATM Lab in NTU on the interactions with different sensors and heartbeat, ECG, and so on, Jarry continues. The work will also look at how to reduce the cognitive load on air traffic controllers so they can handle more objects, he adds. Other research areas in Singapore include artificial intelligence and digital identity, Jarry goes on to say.

In the lonely spaces between protons and neurons, there exists a strange quantum world which does not always make much sense. But what does make sense is how it can improve communication, health, transport, and more, in ways we cant fathom today. As Erman puts it: Its beyond imagination.

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Is quantum innovation the future of tech? - GovInsider

Lead story - Quantum computing - risks, opportunities and use cases - by Chris Middleton

MyPOV: Master-of-the-edgy-think-piece Chris Middleton unfurled a meaty two-parter on the realities of quantum computing. As a quantum computing fan boy and a proud quantum-changes-everything association member curmudgeon, I was glad to see Chris take this on.

In Quantum tech - big opportunities from (very, very) little things, he reminds us that pigeonholing quantum as "computing" is a mistake:

Quantum technology embraces a host of different systems, each of which could form a fast-expanding sector of its own if investors shift their focus away from computing. These include quantum timing, metrology, and navigation, such as the development of hyper-accurate, portable atomic clocks.

Each use case carries its own risks/opportunities, and need for transparency, particularly when you combine quantum and "AI." However, based on the recent sessions he attended, Chris says we should think of quantum as enhancing our tool kit rather than replacing classic computing outright. He concludes:

In business and technology, we see a world of big objects and quantifiable opportunities, and it is far from clear how the quantum realm relates to it though it is clear that it does. In short, investors, policymakers, and business leaders need something tangible and relatable before they reach for their credit cards.

Translation quantum computing is so 2021 (or maybe 2025). But I find middle ground with the hypesters: we'd better start talking about the implications now. Quantum computing has a far greater inevitability than say, enterprise blockchains.

Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week

Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Bears might be hibernating, but enterprise software vendors sure aren't napping:

Koch buys Infor: When Infor's CFO Kevin Samuelson took over the CEO role from Charles Phillips, many felt that the pending Infor IPO was in play. Well, many were wrong. Derek was on the case:

Infor to be acquired by Koch Industries - whats the likely impact? and the follow-on: Infor answers questions on Koch acquisition. The big question here, to me, isn't why Koch versus IPO. It's CloudSuite SaaS adoption. And which industries can Infor address via SaaS industry ERP? Derek's pieces give us important clues - and we'll we watching.

Google breaks out cloud earnings: ordinarily, earning reports are not watershed moments. But this was the first time "Alphabet" broke out Google Cloud (and YouTube) numbers. Google is obviously wary of the AWS and Azure comparisons. But it's not easy to break it all out anyhow (Google added GSuite revenues in also). Stuart parses it out inGoogle's 'challenger' cloud business hits $10 billion annual run rate as Alphabet breaks out the numbers for the first time.

SAP extends Business Suite maintenance to 2030 (with caveats): Arguably the biggest SAP story since the leadership change. Den had some questions stuck in his craw things to say, so he unfurled a two-parter:

MyPOV: a smart move - though an expected one - for the SAP new leadership team, with the user groups heavily involved in pushing the case. However, the next smart moves will be a lot tougher.

More vendor analysis:

And if that's not enough, Brian's got a Zoho review, I filed an Acumatica use case on SaaS best-of-breed, and Stuart crunched a landmark Zendesk earnings report.

Jon's grab bag - My annual productivity post is up and out; plus I took gratuitous shots at linkbaity Slack-has-ruined-work headlines (Personal productivity 2020 - Slack and Microsoft Teams didn't ruin work - but they didn't fix work either).

Neil explains the inexplicable in The problem of AI explainability - can we overcome it? Finally, I'm glad Jerry addressed the Clearview AI bottom-feeders in Clearview AI - super crime fighter or the death of privacy as we know it? There's a special place in my personal Hades for greedy entrepreneurs who steal faces, drape their motives in totally bogus 1st amendment claims, and plan to sell said data to authoritarian regimes. These bozos make robocallers look like human rights activists.

Lead story - analyzing the wreckage of the Iowa caucus tech fail

MyPOV: This could probably just be the whiffs section. The Iowa caucus app failure is very much like this: if you and I wrote down a step-by-step plan on how to screw up a mission-critical app launch, with everything from poor user engagement to technical failure to lack of contingencies to hacking vulnerabilities (which fortunately were not exploited), we've have this mess.

Hits/misses reader Clive reckons this is the best post-mortem: Shadow Inc. CEO Iowa Interview: 'We Feel Really Terrible' . First off, don't feel terrible, just go away. Shovel snow, or get involved in a local recycling initiative. Make a pinball app. Just stay away from the future of democracy from now on. Then there's this doozy: An 'Off-the-Shelf, Skeleton Project': Experts Analyze the App That Broke Iowa. Tell me if this sounds like something that would go smoothly:

To properly login and submit results, caucus chairs had to enter a precinct ID number, a PIN code, and a two-factor identification code, each of which were six-digits long.

Then there's the IDP, which was warned not to use the app by at least one party, and went headlong into their own abyss. Fortunately, there are a few lessons we can extract. Such as this one from Greg Miller, co-founder of the Open Source Election Technology Institute, which warned the IDP not to use the app weeks ago:

Our message is that apps like this should be developed in the sunlight and part of an open bug bounty.

An ironic message for an app developer named Shadow...

Honorable mention

I got a terrifying college flashback when I saw this one: Note targeting 'selfish' bongo player at Glastonbury Tor demands he stops playing. This prankster brought us back to the future though: Berlin artist uses 99 phones to trick Google into traffic jam alert.

In my line of work, we joke about PR hacks over-achievers pogo sticks pros "circling back", as if a second blast will somehow polish the turd of a crummy pitch as it slinkers by - well, this takes the noxious act of circling back to another level: Family Gets 55,000 Duplicate Letters from Loan Company. But hey, it's not all crash-and-burn here:

I can't let this slide another week:

I think we all realize by now that "free" services are all about data hucksters gorging themselves on the sweet nectar of our personal lives selling us out to the highest bidder. But when an anti-virus company gets it on the action, surely the Idiocracy has been achieved: "To make matters worse, Avast seems to maintain a lukewarm stance on the issue."

I'd like to invite the Avast team to step into my fiery cauldron. The only thing that's lukewarm is your grasping business model and your mediocre adware, err, I mean, anti-virus protection. Just one question: who protects us from you? As for Liz:

I'm with ya, Ms. Miller. Hopefully this is the next best thing....

If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.

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Enterprise hits and misses - quantum gets real, Koch buys Infor, and Shadow's failed app gets lit up - Diginomica

Peter Wittek was announced missing on September 29. PHOTO COURTESY OF SRIRAM KRISHNAN/GOFUNDME

On February 3, the Rotman School of Management and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) held a ceremony in honour of Assistant Professor Peter Wittek, who went missing in India in late September. Wittek was a leading expert in quantum machine learning, and his work at the CDL as a founding academic director sought to lead the charge in the commercialization of these technologies.

An avid mountaineer, Wittek was part of a six-person team that was attempting to summit Mount Trishul, a 7,120 metre-high peak in the Himalaya mountain range of India. On September 29, the Indian National Disaster Response Force received an SOS distress signal that originated from Witteks camp. Search and rescue operations were unsuccessful, and it is believed that Witteks camp was caught in an avalanche. His body has yet to be found.

In a statement to U of T News, Professor Ken Corts, Acting Dean of the Rotman School of Management, said that Peters loss is keenly felt. Wittek is remembered by Corts as an exceptional contributor to Rotman and U of T and a wonderful colleague.

Over a hundred U of T students, staff, and faculty, as well as members of the artificial intelligence (AI) community attended his ceremony on Monday. A number of speakers who were close to Wittek shared stories of his brilliance and generosity of spirit.

Witteks brother, Gergo Oberfrank, came from Hungary to attend the ceremony. He expressed the anguish that he and his family feel at the possibility that they will never find Witteks body. Oberfrank began his speech by saying goodbye to not only a brother for [him], but a father figure too. The two had an 11-year age difference, and Wittek was his biggest role model.

Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Multiverse Computing Samuel Mugel also spoke about looking up to Wittek, even before he met him. Mugel recounted his time starting out in the field of quantum computing, saying, What I found difficult was that I didnt really have many role models [that were both] entrepreneurs and scientists and this is really the position that Peter started to take for me because I saw him as someone that really managed to find the balance between an entrepreneurs career [while] simultaneously [pursuing] fundamental research.

CDL Founder Ajay Agrawal also marvelled at Witteks eagerness to pursue the entrepreneurial side of cutting-edge technologies. I knew that he was a scholar and he had tendencies as a theorist. And I know that theorists can be resistant to thinking about such crass things as commercialization, Agrawal remarked with a bit of wryness in his voice.

This seems to be the crux of what made Wittek such a consequential academic and caused his fame in the field of quantum machine learning to be so enduring. He was both interested in the way nature works, [and] in understanding the underlying science, but also interested in commercialization, noted Agrawal.

Wittek was not only influential for his work in the field as a whole, but also for providing critical advice and guidance to a number of budding researchers and entrepreneurs. Mugel noted that Wittek was the one who had encouraged him to apply for the CDL Quantum Stream.

I think there [are] an awful lot of people here who can tell you something similar that Peter turned up at a key turn in their life and with advice or a push in the right direction, helped us in these really difficult decisions. Multiverse Computing is now a cutting-edge provider of quantum computing and AI software for the financial industry.

Khalid Kurji, a senior venture manager at the CDL, spoke on behalf of the team behind the Quantum Machine Learning Stream, of which Wittek was a crucial part. Kurji spoke on Witteks cosmopolitan outlook, remarking that his teams aspirations to lead globally could only become a reality because our academic director [Wittek] considered the entire planet his neighbourhood and treated every single person as if they grew up next door to him.

To Kurji, Witteks defining characteristic was his generosity. He gave the full of himself of his enthusiasm and intellect into everything he did.

Agrawal also shared this sentiment, and, as evidence, pointed out the surprising number of students who have emailed to express their gratitude for having had Wittek in their lives. I think people have a need to tell somebody how much someone has touched their life, changed the trajectory of their life, Agrawal reflected.

Agrawal also shared the story of how he first met Wittek. After reading Witteks book, Quantum Machine Learning: What Quantum Computing Means to Data Mining, Agrawal sent him an email with a few questions. Very often when I send the author a question about their book, they either dont reply or if they do reply they might send a very quick one-sentence response.

On the screen behind him, Agrawal projected an image of Witteks response to his question. The email was too long to fit on a single slide, and had to be shown in two parts. He had received it 48 minutes after his initial email. Its remarkable how much you can tell about a person from the very first interaction, Agrawal noted.

Im an economist; I was not in his community. And I was surprised that he would take the time to send me such a thorough response and then ask me if I had more questions. And I thought, This is my kind of person.

Tags: memorial, missing, Peter Wittek

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Memorial ceremony held for Peter Wittek, U of T professor who went missing in India - Varsity

Quantum Computing Inc () CEO Robert Liscouski tells Proactive the technology company has released its Mukai quantum application development platform, featuring a software stack ready to solve extremely complex optimization problems.

Liscouski says applications like Mukai are necessary to drive business value, as it ultimately gives access to end-users using quantum computing.

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Quantum Computing releases its new software application called Mukai - Proactive Investors USA & Canada

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced an outlay of 8,000 crore over the next five years on national mission on quantum technologies, while emphasising on the importance of leveraging artificial intelligence, data analytics, and internet of things for digital governance.

Data centre parks will be set up in India with the help of private sector, she said. The budget also allocated 6,000 crore for Bharat Net and said 1 lakh gram panchayats will get fibre to home connections under Bharat Net scheme in one year.

Policy on private sector building data centre parks is an exciting opportunity for fintech companies. This is also in line with the governments policy on retaining critical data within the country," said Sanjay Khan, partner, Khaitan & Co.

Maninder Bharadwaj, partner, Deloitte India said the emphasis of government on data and digitisation is clearly highlighted in this budget. Building of data centers, collection of nutritional information from 10 crore households and focus on fiber optic networks are initiatives that will propel India towards a digital journey," he added.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning featured extensively in the ministers speech with proposal to use it in various existing and future projects such as the proposed national policy for statistics and the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

While the government had previously set up a national portal for AI research and development, in the latest announcement, the government has continued to offer its support for tech advancements. We appreciate the governments emphasis on promoting cutting-edge technologies in India," Atul Rai, co-founder & CEO of Staqu said in a statement.

Governments across the world have been laying emphasis on use of AI for digital governance. As per reports, US government intends to spend almost $1 billion in AI-related research and development in 2020.

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Budget 2020: Govt bets on AI, data analytics and quantum computing - Livemint

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become the talk of the town. No forum seems to be complete without talking about how technology is going to impact the world.

In a conversation with Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet shared some valuable insights on the age of AI, the future of the open web, and technology's impact on society at the recently concluded WEF summit at Davos, Switzerland.

While several may argue that technology is negatively impacting the world by taking away jobs and comprising the safety and security of individuals, Pichai calls himself a technology optimist and believes that despite its disadvantages, AI has great potential in reforming the world from climate to healthcare.

Credit: World Economic Forum

Edited excerpt from the interview:

Professor Klaus Schwab (PKS) - Welcome Sundar Pichai. My first question is, you have called yourself a technology optimist, and we hear a lot of concerns about technologies. What makes you an optimist?

Sundar Pichai (SP) - What makes me a technology optimist?I think it's more about how I got introduced to technology. Growing up, I think, I had to wait for a long time before I got my hands on either a telephone or television when it came to our household. I discreetly remember how it changed our lives. TV allowed me access to world news, football, and cricket. So I always had this first-hand experience of how gaining access to technology changes people's lives.

Later on, I was inspired by the One Laptop per Child project, where the school was giving $100 laptops to children. They quite didn't get there. But I think it was a very inspiring goal and made a lot of progress in the industry. Later, we were able to make progress with Android. Each year, millions of people get access to computing for the first time. We do this with low-cost affordable Chromebooks. And seeing the difference it has made in people's lives, it gives me great hope for the path ahead. And more recently with AI, just in the last month, we have seen how it can help doctors better detect breast cancer with more accuracy.

We also launched a better rainfall prediction app. Over time, AI can play a role in climate change. So when you see these examples firsthand, I'm clear-eyed about the risks with technology. But the biggest risk with AI may be failing to work on it and make more progress with it because it can impact billions of people.

PKS - Can you explain what we can expect from quantum computing?

SP - Its an extraordinarily important milestone we achieved last year, something thats known in the field as quantum supremacy. It is when you can take quantum computers and they can do something which classical computers cannot. To me, nature at a fundamental level works in a quantum way. At a subatomic level, things can exist in many different states at the same time. Classical computers work in ones and zeros, so we know that's an imperfect way to simulate nature. Nature works differently. What's exciting about quantum computing and why we are so excited about the possibilities is it will allow us to understand the world more deeply. We can simulate nature better. So that means simulating molecular structures to discover better drugs, understanding the climate more deeply to predict weather patterns and tackle climate change, etc. We can design better batteries, nitrogen fixation the process by which we make the world's fertilisers, and accounts for two percent of carbon emissions. And the processes have not changed for a long time because it's very complicated.

Quantum computers will allow us the hope that we can make that process more efficient. So it's very profound. We've all been dealing in technology with the end of Moore's law. It's revolutionised in the past 40 years, but it's levelled off. So when I look at the future and say how do we drive improvements, quantum will be one of the tools in our arsenal by which we can keep something like Moore's Law continuing to evolve. The potential is huge and we'll have challenges. But in five to 10 years, quantum computing will break encryption as we know it today. But we can work around it. We need to do quantum encryption. There are challenges as always with any evolving technology. But I think the combination of AI and quantum will help us tackle some of the biggest problems we see.

PKS - And also to a certain extent, genetics. I think quantum computing and biology will have great potential positive or negative impacts.

SP - The positive one, as you're saying, rightly is to simulate molecules, protein folding, etc. It's very complex today. We cannot do it with classical computers. So with quantum computers, we can. But we have to be clear about all these powerful technologies. And this is why I think we need to be deliberate and regulate technologies like AI, and as a society, we need to engage in it.

PKS - And this leads me to the next question, actually because in an editorial in the Financial Times, which I read just before the annual meeting, you stated and I quote, Google's whole starts with recognising the need for a principle and regulated approach for applying artificial intelligence. What does it mean?

SP - You know, I've said this before that AI is one of the most profound things we are working on as humanity. It's more profound than fire, electricity, or any of the other bigger things we have worked on. It has tremendous positive sides to it. But it has real negative consequences. When you think about technologies like facial recognition, it can be used to benefit. It can be used to find missing people, but it can (also) be used for mass surveillance. And as democratic countries with a shared set of values, we need to build on those values and make sure when we approach AI we're doing it in a way that serves society. And that means making sure AI doesn't have a bias that we build and test it for safety. We make sure that there is a human agency that is ultimately accountable to people.

About 18 months ago, we published a set of principles under which we would develop as Google. But it's been very encouraging to see the European Commission has identified AI and sustainability as their top priorities. And the US put out a set of principles last week. And, be it the OECD or G20, they're all talking about this, which I think is very encouraging. And I think we need a common framework by which we approach AI.

PKS - How do you see Google in five years from now?

SP - We know we will do well, only if others do well along with us. That's how Google works today through search. We help users reach the information they want including businesses and businesses grow along with search. In the US, last year, we created $335 billion of economic opportunity. And that's true in every country around the world. We think with Alphabet, there's a real chance to take a long-term view and work on technology which can improve people's lives. But we won't do it alone. In many other bets, which we are working on where we can, we take outside investments. These companies are independent, so you can imagine we'll do it in partnerships with other companies. And Alphabet gives us the flexibility to have different structures for different areas in a way we need them to fix healthcare, and we can deeply partner with other companies. Today, we partner with the leading healthcare companies as we work on these efforts.

So we understand for Alphabet to do well, we inherently need to do it in a way that works with other companies, creating an ecosystem around it. This is why last year, just through our venture arm, we invested in over 100 companies. We are just investors in these companies, and they're going to be independent companies. We want them to thrive and succeed. And so, you know, that's the way we think about it. But I think it gives us a real chance to take a long-term view, be it self driving cars or AI.

PKS - So last question. You said you are an optimist. When you wake up at night and you cannot sleep anymore, what worries you at some time?

SP - You were pretty insightful. That is true. Yeah, I do wake up at night. What worries me at night? I think technology has a chance to transform society for the good, but we need to learn to harness it to work for society's good. But I do worry that we turn our backs on technology. And I worry that when people do that they get left behind too. And so to me, how do you do it inclusively? I was in Belgium and I went to MolenGeek, a startup incubator in Molenbeek. In that community, you see people who may not have gone to school, but when you give them access to digital skills, they're hungry for it. People want to learn technology and be a part of it. That's the desire you see around the world when we travel. When I go to emerging markets, it's a big source of opportunity. And so I think it's our duty and responsibility to drive this growth inclusively. And that keeps me up at night.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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AI has great potential in transforming the world: Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai - YourStory

COMPUTING

Alphabet Has a Second Secretive Quantum Computing TeamTom Simonite | Wired[Alphabets moonshot incubator Xs]small group of quantum researchers is not building its own quantum computing hardware. The groups leader is more interested in creating new algorithms and applications to run on quantum computers, and building software libraries that allow conventional coders to use the exotic machines.

Japan Is Building a Giant Gundam Robot That Can WalkEvan Ackerman | IEEE SpectrumGundam Factory Yokohama, which is a Gundam Factory in Yokohama, is constructing an 18-meter-tall, 25-ton Gundam robot. The plan is for the robot to be fully actuated using a combination of electric and hydraulic actuators, achieving Gundam-like movement with its 24 degrees of freedom.

How to Turn Garbage Into GrapheneCourtney Linder | Popular MechanicsThe new process, which is called flash graphene production, yields bulk quantities of graphene flakes. Not only does this technique produce far more graphene than traditional methods, but its also way cheaper and greener, upcycling food waste, plastic, and even coal into a valuable carbon allotrope used in various branches of material science.

Mammoth Biosciences Aims to Be Illumina for the Gene Editing GenerationJonathan Schieber | TechCrunchYou will need a full toolbox of CRISPR proteins, says [Trevor Martin, Mammoth Biosciences co-founder and chief executive]. That will allow you to interact with biology in the same way that we interact with software and computers. From first principles, companies will programmatically modify biology to cure a disease or decrease risk for a disease.'

Will You Still Need a College Education in 2040?Anisa Purbasari Horton | Fast Company[Six experts] shared the consensus that change is the only certainty. Workers, employers, and education providers alike need to be agile, flexible, and prepared to adapt as technology continues to disrupt industries and change what jobs will and will not be available. Heres what else they had to say.

This Is the Highest-Resolution Photo of the Sun Ever TakenNeel V. Patel | MIT Technology ReviewThe new image demonstrates the telescopes potential power. It shows off a surface thats divided up into discrete, Texas-size cells, like cracked sections in the desert soil. You can see plasma oozing off the surface, rising high into the solar atmosphere before sinking back into darker lanes. [Note: The referenced photo appears in this articles banner image.]

A History ofStar Treks Uneasy Relationship With AndroidsJames Whitbrook | io9Sci-fi has been fascinated with sentient synthetic life sinceits earliest days, butStar Trek, in particular, has had quite the tumultuous history with its own consideration of androids and their place in its far future. From classic interpretations of sinister bots to one of the franchises most beloved characters, heres everything you need to know aboutStar Treksandroids.

Technology Is AnthropologyJon Evans | TechCrunchIts hard enough getting an accurate answer of how a person would use a new technology when thats the only variable. When they live in a constantly shifting and evolving world of other new technologies, when the ones which take root and spread have a positive-feedback-loop effect on the culture and mindset toward new technologies, and when every one of your first 20 interactions with new tech changes your feelings about itits basically impossible.

Image Credit: NSO/AURA/NSF

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This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through February 1) - Singularity Hub

In her Budget 2020 speech presented in the Parliament, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a government scheme that will boost the manufacturing of cell phones and electronic equipment in India. The announcement comes as an extension of the governments flagship 'Make in India programme that, FM says, will encompass major disruptions in the countrys tech domain. Mobile phone manufacturing is a crucial sector that needs robust regulations and provisions to attract more foreign players, which ultimately impacts over 800 million consumers.

Sitharaman said the details on the scheme will be announced soon. We can expect more waive-offs on the import duty that is currently levied on components such as smartphone and television displays. The unnamed scheme will also boost the production of electronic equipment and semiconductors that are integral for the assembly for consumer-end devices such as mobile phones, tablets, televisions, and more.

Currently, mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung, Oppo, and Xiaomi have begun producing their smartphones locally, as opposed to mere device assembly earlier. Other players are following the move to escape the heavy taxes imposed on imported electronic items. Local manufacturing units also create more employment in the country something that is another major focus area of the central government. Not only the domestic manufacturing of mobile phones, but the government also wants the companies to aggressively venture into R&D within the country.

Nothing is certain right now, at least not until the government comes out with the proposed policy. But if Apple starts ramping up manufacturing of the iPhone in India, the device is bound to get cheaper. Other phones that are manufactured in India will also likely get cheaper but the impact, in relative terms, can be significant on the iPhone because the way Apple pegs the Dollar-Rupee rate. In Apple calculation this rate is often more than Rs 90.

Domestic manufacturing of mobile phones has also been fruitful for some companies, including Apple, in India. Contrary to its earlier position in Indian smartphone market, Apple now enjoys a share of 4 per cent, which is significantly higher, thanks to the local production of the companys hit mobile phone iPhone XR.

Wistron, the company that possesses the contract to manufacture the iPhone for Apple, opened its third facility in India in a bid to ramp up the production. Another Apple supplier Salcomp is taking over Nokias closed facility in Chennai to scale up manufacturing. The iPhone models such as iPhone 6S, iPhone XR are now made in India, however, most intricate parts are still imported.

Producing iPhone locally has led to frequent price drops on iPhone units ensuring affordability something that a major chunk of Indian customers has always demanded. iPhone XR is available for as low as Rs 42,990 in India, which is on par with the pricing of smartphones from companies such as OnePlus and Samsung.

Besides, Apple has been in talks with the government to open its retail stores in India to proliferate into the consumer segment that shops products offline. A recent report has claimed that Apple is ready to launch its online marketplace in India, in competition to its partner websites such as Flipkart and Amazon.

While the union budget dealt largely with weightier issues like health, education and defence, the finance minister in her speech also touched upon some topics that would be of interest to people who read tech news. One of these topics is quantum computing, a new emerging form of computing that a number of countries and companies are researching. The minister in her speech said that India will allocate Rs 8000 crore in the next five years in areas related to quantum computing research. For now quantum computing remains a research topic in labs across the world, although Google recently said that it has managed to create a quantum computer that can do real-world calculations. Challenges, however, remain and so far there is no commercial application of quantum computing.

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Budget 2020: New scheme to boost local manufacturing of mobiles, will iPhone get cheaper now? - India Today