Alibaba oulines plans for quantum processors, AI chips
At its annual Computing Conference held this week in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba laid out a roadmap for the development of cutting-edge technologies over the next five years that include its own quantum computing processors and customized AI chips.
Making the chip
The Alibaba DAMO Academy will start developing its own quantum processors with high-precision, multi-qubit hardware. This comes on top of existing initiatives that hope to apply quantum processing towards solving fundamental problems around machine learning and physics simulations.
Alibaba expects that in time, commercial products resulting from its research will be introduced to bring value to its customers across a diverse range of industries.
The Chinese company also announced the establishment of an as-yet-unnamed subsidiary that will focus on customized AI chips and embedded processors to further support Alibaba's growing cloud and IoT businesses.
Focus on AI
While its AI chip-making projects are still in their nascent stage, Dr. Rong Jin, the head of machine intelligence technologies at Alibaba, shed more light on the company’s various AI-centric development efforts in a media briefing.
“The key difference between our research entity, it is not just about developing state-of-the-art technology, but to ensure that the technology can be applied and used to solve real challenges,” he said.
He pointed to the popular image search functionality used by Taobao shoppers to perform a reverse search of items they want to buy, noting that it’s one example of the kind of practical AI research Alibaba has focused on.
“One thing to keep in mind is there are 300 million items on Taobao. That is a huge database. For every query issued by a user, you must compare this image to 300 million profiles and make an accurate decision about which is likely to be the right item,” Rong Jin explained.
“The sheer scale causes challenges not just in engineering, but also results in tremendous challenges in the matching and recognition process. You have to capture all the important details.”
Innovation ahead
The DAMO Academy has over 300 researchers around the world and has partnered with academic institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. Alibaba did not share the number of researchers in its new AI-focused chip unit.
“Alibaba has been a leading technology innovator in cloud computing and artificial intelligence since we announced our determination to transform into a technology powerhouse two years ago,” said Jeff Zhang, CTO of Alibaba Group.
“The establishment of Alibaba DAMO Academy and its achievements over the past year underlie our strong commitment to technology leadership. Moving ahead, we are confident that our advantages in algorithms, data intelligence, computing power and domain knowledge on the back of Alibaba's diverse ecosystem will put us at a unique position to lead real technology breakthroughs in disruptive areas, such as quantum and chip technology.”
Source datacenterdynamics
Industry: Data Centre & Artificial Intelligence News
Latest Jobs
-
- Information Security Risk Consultant, London. ISO 27005
- London
- 60000
-
REFCH7901 Information Security Risk Consultant, London. ISO 27005 Information Security Risk consultant needed for a London based client. The ability to achieve SC security clearance will be required. ISO 27005 Risk Assessment experience is essential. The role will cover, Risk identification, Assessment and Advisory consulting. This is a client facing role, single client- not multiple. Experience working with multiple teams and internal stakeholders is essential. The information Security Risk Consultant should ideally have a breath of information Security and IT technology based security experience. Prior experience within the public sector is desirable, but not essential. Broad knowledge across Security IT transformation, Cloud is also key. Broad experience across GRC, iso27001, NIST is key. Ongoing support and training provided. Apply today for more information, all details kept in confidence.
-
- Google Cloud platform Security Engineer, Contract, inside IR35
- United Kingdom
- -
-
REF CH7897 Google Cloud platform Security Engineer, Contract, Inside IR35 Looking for a Google Cloud platform Security Engineer will define, document, design, implement, harden and generally improve the security capability of a Google Cloud Platform. The ability to configure, and deploy the following Google Cloud Platform security solutioons is essential; Command Security Centre, Cluster Security, APIGEE, GCP Cloud Armor Hands on technical expertise security experience with Terraform, Kubernetes Security, Container (Docker) security, Secret Manager is essential as is experience securing Google Kubernetes Engine Workloads. It is essential that you have a proven track record of securing a GCP environment and expertise in automating that with Terraform. Scripting experience with the above where appropriate is a key ability. You will be highly technical and have the ability to engage with stakeholders to ultimately deliver a secure and hardened Google Cloud Platform.
-
- Security Analyst, London. Financial Services. End user.
- London
- 55000
-
CH7885. Security Analyst, London. Financial Services. End user. Immediate role. £55,000 Security Analyst needed to monitor and manage a security suite of tools within Financial Servicecs end user . The Security Analyst will be responsible monitoring, configuring, fine tuning, incident management and generally improving the security tool capability. Specific experience with CyberArk, Tripwire Log Center and Tripwire Enterprise is highly desirable). Current experience with Vulnerability management and penetration testing is highly desirable. Specifically the ability to effectively manage 3rd party pen tests. You will be working within a specialist security team reporting to the CISO. Experience working within a regulated end user environment within financial services is highly desirable. This role will run a hyrbid working schedule, partly remote, partly office based in London (once permitted) This is an exclusive role to DCL Search & Selection. https://calendly.com/chris-holt/call-with-chris-holt-dcl-search
-
- IAM Consultant- Identity Governance
- United Kingdom
- Upto £80,000 plus benefits
-
Identity and Access Management Consutlant is required for this established business who put their employees first. the role entails • Develop and maintain IAM services. • Further develop IAM tool integration with Service Now to provide automated JML processes and application access requests and fulfilment. • Provide guidance over Role Based Access in terms of Location based Roles, Application Roles and Business Roles and act as SME over any future RBAC project. • Work closely with our other Technology teams on integrating IAM services with Technology and business systems to increase efficiency through automation around areas such as JML processes, application access request fulfilment and attestation. • Work with the Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) team to provide application access attestations and toxic combination alerting and reporting. • Involvement with Identity Management initiatives such as Single Sign On (SSO) and Privileged Access Management (PAM), to ensure security and business processes are in line with industry best practice. • Assist in ensuring that all IAM capabilities are mapped to internal processes, policies, and standards. Develop metrics to measure and improve the alignment. • Complete monthly review and report on sensitive group access, i.e., service accounts, admin accounts, etc. validating I&O processes are effective. • Provide information to both internal and external Auditors in response to findings. • Collate audit evidence for AAF audit and control reviews, taking responsibility for identifying service and process improvements to ensure compliance with our controls and standards. We are looking for someone with Hands on technical experience with the IAM tools, you need to have been involved in the integration of the IAM solution into 3rd party software like Servicenow, You will have worked with an IAM tools that are focused into Identity Goveranance, like RSA, CA Identity Suite, Fischer Identity, Hid Global, IBM IGL, Net IQ Identity Goverance, Omada, Ping or Oracle Post covid, this role will invovle a mix of home and office work, the business have a number of office spread across the UK so locaton is flexible for this position