Quantum Computing Meets Artificial Intelligence

The world of computing is going to shift towards new paradigms able to provide better performance in solving hard problems than classical computation. In this scenario, quantum computing is assuming a key role thanks to the recent technological enhancements achieved by several big companies in developing computational devices based on fundamental principles of quantum mechanics: superposition, entanglement and interference. These computers will be able to yield performance never seen before in several application domains, and the area of artificial intelligence may be the one most affected by this revolution. Indeed, on the one hand, the intrinsic parallelism provided by quantum computers could support the design of efficient algorithms for artificial intelligence such as, for example, the training algorithms of machine learning models, and bio-inspired optimization algorithms; on the other hand, artificial intelligence techniques could be used to reduce the effect of quantum decoherence in quantum computing, and make this type of computation more reliable. This position paper aims at introducing the readers with this new research area and pave the way towards the design of innovative computing infrastructure where both quantum computing and artificial intelligence take a key role in overcoming the performance of conventional approaches.