OpenAI has been responsible for some of the greatest breakthroughs in AI. This research lab created a language generator (GPT-3), a text to image generator (DALL·E), a music generator (MUSE) and more. It's mission is to make artificial intelligence human positive and AI research public and free. So why has did it license its latest technology to Microsoft?

From Short and Sweet AI, I’m Dr. Peper and today I’m discussing more about quantum computing. Regular computers use a binary system of ones and zeros or bits. Quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits which exist in superposition and make them very powerful. Quantum computing is a very different technology from anything we’ve seen because qubits can exist in two states at once. They can be like a coin that is spinning and is both heads and tails at once. In order to explain how this could exist, quantum computing which is based on quantum physics has created theories of the existence of parallel universes. In a parallel universe you could have a coin be heads and in a separate parallel universe, it could be tails. Yeah, this stuff gets pretty crazy, very fast. In the previous podcast I talked about the super powerful state of superposition. And I talked about entanglements where multiple qubits are physically separated but act like they’re entangled and give similar results. Added to that is this is all taking place in a computer which looks like a fantastic chandelier, made that way in order to create very cold conditions similar to outer space. Absolute zero, outerspace. But are quantum computers a reality? There are many groups all over the world working on this technology: IBM, Google, Intel, the Chinese government, the US government, private start up groups such as Rigetti Computing and more. All these groups have been working feverishly for the ultimate breakthrough. Then in 2019 Google announced its’ quantum computer had solved a mathematical problem in 3 minutes 32 seconds. It would have taken the most powerful, existing supercomputer more than 10,000 years to solve the problem. That’s the difference in magnitude and power between a regular supercomputer and a quantum computer. As the scientists explained, the answer to the problem wasn’t important, it really didn’t do anything. But what the Google quantum computer accomplished was the same as the Wright brothers first plane flight. It showed that quantum computing was really possible even though its true potential is years in the future. What’s holding the technology back? Well, quantum type problems. Qubits are very sensitive and must be shielded from heat, electrical interference, and other metals, and cooled down to just above absolute zero in order to complete their calculations. And you need at least 50 qubits to have a quantum computer but groups of qubits are very fragile and can fall apart or de-cohere. This leads to errors in the calculations. Scientists are confident they will solve these problems in the next decade and then we will really see what these computers can do. That goes back to how qubits work. They’re very powerful because they can deal with uncertainty. And that’s how the laws of atoms and subatomic particles called quantum physics work. In nature, things smaller than the atom are not always on or off. They don’t follow the laws of larger things in nature such as gravity, relativity or E equals MC squared. With regular computers if you want to solve a maze, it will go down every single path, one after the other, until it finds the right one. A quantum computer works by the laws of subatomic particles and goes down every path at once because it can operate with uncertainty; it can hold each alternative path as a possibility. Technology this powerful can be used to simulate large complicated problems with uncertainty such as forecast financial markets, find better products such as batteries for self-driving cars, new drugs for medications, or even using quantum computing to understand quantum physics. And cryptography will be saved by quantum computing. New quantum encryption uses the uncertainty principle where everything influences th...

From Short and Sweet AI, I’m Dr. Peper and today I’m talking about one of the most challenging ideas I’ve ever discussed, quantum computing. Quantum computing excites and perplexes me. It has all these strange, science fiction parts to it such as superposition, entanglement, parallel universes, yes, I said parallel universes, temperatures as cold a deep space, well, just above absolute zero really, and of course qubits. And quantum computers have been described as looking like steampunk chandeliers. Quantum Bits = Qubits Let’s start with qubits. In traditional computers, information is coded as binary units which are either ones or zeros and referred to as bits. They’re like tiny switches that can be either in the off position, represented by a zero, or in the on position, represented by a one. Computers are made up of millions of these bits in some combination of ones and zeros. This binary system is how our phones, apps, websites and the internet work. Quantum computing is completely different. It involves a philosophical leap really. It involves the idea that a single object can be in two states at the same time, so it can be a one and a zero at the same time, or it can be on and off at the same time. I know, it sounds crazy. Superposition Take a coin for example, if you flip a coin, it can be either heads or tails. But during the flip, the coin is spinning and is in both states at once, heads and tails at the same time. This is called superposition. Quantum computing stores a combination of one and zeros in both states, on and off, at once, in the form of qubits. Quantum computers are powered by collections of qubits in superposition and that’s what makes them so powerful. Entanglements The other thing qubits do is called entanglement. When two particles are linked together in quantum computing it’s called entanglement even if they’re physically separate. Normally when you flip a coin, tossing one coin won’t affect the next coin toss. But in quantum computing, two spinning coins can be linked together and if one comes up heads, the other one will also come up heads.Then if you can string together multiple qubits you can tackle the problems that even our best computers can’t solve. But quantum computers are not really just about doing things faster or more efficiently. They can do things we can’t even dream of, things our everyday supercomputers can’t possibly do. Light Bulb, Not Candle A quantum physicist, Shohini Ghose, says a quantum computer is not just a more powerful supercomputer just as a light bulb is not a more powerful version of a candle. You cannot build a light bulb by building better and better candles. A light bulb is a different technology just as quantum computing is a different technology. Having a lot more candles won’t achieve the same effect of what a light bulb can do because they’re two different technologies. And just like a light bulb transformed society, quantum computers have the potential to impact many, many different aspects of our lives. Magic Quantum computing is so strange, so futuristic, so exuberant, really, I love it. To me it’s what the science fiction guru, Arthur C. Clarke, was thinking about when he said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” There’s so much more to discuss about qubits, quantum computing, and the space race to quantum supremacy in my next episode. Until then, from Short and Sweet AI, I’m Dr. Peper.

From short and sweet AI, I’m Dr Peper. I’ve interrupted my podcasts in the last few weeks in order to do what my first passion is, be a physician and care for patients as we’ve experienced a COVID surge in my area. I’ve had to be available 24/7 to provide care to my patients, discuss things with nursing staff and facility staff and speak with families about their loved ones. The families, they are very worried, scared, not being able to see their mother or father who are living in these facilities but are on lockdown. Patients are in their rooms eating, meals in their rooms, not able to come out to participate in activities in order to protect them and keep them safe from the COVID virus. It’s been a very humbling and sad few weeks as many of my patients have died. My team and I at these facilities have worked to make sure that in these, that in unwanted and really complicated situations, they have the best death possible and are able to pass away in what is essentially their homes being taken care of by caregivers who know them with hospice services available to them. But despite all these efforts, they do end up dying without their families being present. They die separated from their families. They don’t die alone. The caregivers and nursing staff are there which um brings some comfort to know. And there are many, many people working very bravely and very difficult jobs to ensure the safety and try keep these frail, vulnerable residents safe. So all my time and attention has been my patients in the past few weeks but before all this crescendoed in just a short time, I was working on a podcast about an AI researcher known as, um, called Geoffrey Hinton. He’s someone in the field of artificial intelligence who is known as the godfather of AI. And there were similar resonating themes from what I was learning about him and his life and what we’re experiencing now. Things such well, mainly perseverance and dedication and believing in what we’re doing. And this will become more clear when I’m able to record and release that podcast. But it does, um, help to know that at all times people have had to deal with difficulties and we are defined not by our successes, but how we deal with the difficulties and the fortitude we’re able to find within ourselves when things aren’t going well. And I would say even more so, I’ve been thinking day after day of a scene in the Hamilton musical called Valley Forge and there’s a song where Alexander Hamilton is getting so frustrated trying to help the army and the revolution and George Washington and not receiving any aid from the Continental Congress or other merchants and George Washington tries to counsel Hamilton to be calm but the song ends on a very somber note, which I think is very applicable and plays over in my head on these days when I’m signing so many death certificates and the song lyrics say that we’re gonna fly a lot of flags half-mast, and that’s what we, in this country, are doing now. It’s a battle. It’s a fight against an invisible, um, enemy. But what I’ve seen of the people dedicated to doing what they have been trained to do and what they’ve dedicated their lives to do. I, I see it that we will pull through to the other side of this. And I know we will learn from this and be more vigilant and more ready the next time, so that so many people do not die.From short and sweet AI. I’m Dr Peper sending you all my best thoughts, be well and stay safe.