Quantum Leap

IBM is ramping up its investments in quantum computing.

Today it announced the opening of the IBM Quantum Computation Center in New York state, one which expands the company’s fleet of quantum computing systems for commercial and research activity that exist beyond the confines of experimental lab environments.

To date, the global IBM Quantum user community has run more than 14 million experiments on IBM’s quantum computers through the cloud, and published more than 200 scientific papers. To meet growing demand for quantum hardware access, ten quantum computing systems are now online through IBM’s Quantum Computation Center, composed of five 20-qubit systems, one 14-qubit system, and four 5-qubit systems.

Within a month, IBM’s commercially available quantum fleet will grow to 14 systems, including a new 53-qubit quantum computer, the single largest universal quantum system made available for external access in the industry, to date.

Advances in quantum computing could open the door to future scientific discoveries such as new medicines and materials, vast improvements in the optimization of supply chains, and new ways to model financial data to make better investments.

You can learn more at http://www.ibm.com/ibmq

FarmBots

If you thought automation was limited to e-commerce warehouses and factory floors, think again. TechCrunch is reporting that a number of robotics and autonomy firms are looking next to agriculture.

From farm to C3P0 to table.

According to a report from TechCrunch, Ag robotics firm FarmWise just raised $14.5M to continue development of an autonomous weeding vehicle.

Though they are currently prototypes, the large machines scan the ground for invasive weeds among crops and carefully pluck them out. 

From the company’s press release on the fund raise: “FarmWise’s autonomous, AI-enabled robots are designed to solve farmers’ most pressing challenges by performing a variety of farming functions — starting with weeding, and providing personalized care to every plant they touch.”

The company suggests that machine learning models, computer vision and high-precision mechanical tools will allow sophisticated robots to cleanly pick weeds from fields, leaving crops with the best opportunity to thrive while eliminating harmful chemical inputs.

FarmWise is supported by a team of 25 farming and AI experts from MIT, Stanford, and Columbia.