PASQAL joins forces with Mila

PASQAL, a France-based leader in neutral atom quantum computing has partnered with Mila, a Montreal-based research institute in artificial intelligence. The collaboration will be a first exploratory step towards enhancing generative modeling with quantum computing benchmarking and coupling with tensor networks.

Adding to Mila’s vibrant community of nearly a dozen partners in the quantum space, this collaboration also aims to gather a community of researchers and companies at Mila around the topic of quantum machine learning. This is expected to be the start of future collaborative developments on the enhancement of AI by quantum technologies.

The one-year research plan mainly seeks to contribute to quantum computing and machine learning by deepening our understanding of the interplay between quantum concepts and structured data generation, to explore the potential quantum advantages in machine learning, and to develop novel generative models. Slimane Thabet, quantum application engineer at PASQAL joined Université de Montréal and Mila Professor Guillaume Rabusseau’s team as visiting researcher.

“This collaboration between Mila and PASQAL is an opportunity to explore and advance the intersection between quantum computing and machine learning. Together, we look forward to contributing to the ever-evolving landscape of AI and quantum innovation,” said Guillaume Rabusseau, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research (DIRO) at Université de Montréal, Core Academic Member at Mila and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Mila, and principal investigator of this project.

“Boosting machine learning algorithms by quantum shows great potential, and neutral atoms quantum computing brings promising ways to find short-term relevant approaches. We really believe that the impressive community of Mila’s ecosystem will contribute to deliver impactful results,” said Raphaël de Thoury, CEO of PASQAL-Canada.