D-Wave is offering free access to its quantum computers for Covid-19 researchers

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? D-Wave said partners and customers including Kyocera Corporation, NEC Solution Innovators, Menten AI and Volkswagen, among others, will be providing access to engineering teams to help researchers use the quantum computer, formulate problems and develop solutions.

Canadian quantum computing company D-Wave Systems on Tuesday said it is offering anyone working on responses to the Covid-19 crisis immediate and free access to its quantum computers via the Leap 2 quantum cloud service.

Free, unfettered access to D-Wave’s systems via Leap is available to anyone working on a Covid-19 response across the 35 North American, European and Asian countries where access to the Leap 2 quantum cloud service is accessible.

“Leap 2 includes the hybrid solver service designed to bring both classical and quantum resources to quickly and precisely solve highly complex problems with up to 10,000 fully connected variables,” D-Wave said.

“Deftly responding to this pandemic requires creativity and new approaches to solving problems. We believe that by combining our customers’ and partners’ expertise with hybrid quantum computing, we can together bring a potentially powerful resource to the individuals, organizations, and governments around the world building solutions nimbly and collaboratively,” said D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz.

Baratz told TechCrunch that the project started taking shape about a week and a half ago. The executive stressed that teams working on Leap 2 will get a commercial license, so there is no need to open source their solutions and won’t have a one-minute per month limit.

TechCrunch said Baratz acknowledged that there is no guarantee that the teams that will get access to its systems will come up with any workable solutions. ”But what we do know is that we would be remiss if we didn’t make this tool available,” he added.

Fingers crossed that the researchers will make some sort of meaningful breakthrough in learning more about Covid-19 and perhaps finding a cure.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84635-d-wave-offering-free-access-quantum-computers-covid.html

 

[wiyosaya]

It would be really interesting to see if this came up with something tangible.

 

[Yynxs]

It will be interesting to see if there is anyone out there with the expertise to usefully exploit this capability on coronavirus research. If so, they can expect CPLA on their doorsteps with lots and lots of cash shortly (of course there may already be agents in place).