On the status of current quantum machine learning software

The recent advancements in noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices implementation allow us to study their application to real-life computational problems. However, hardware challenges are not the only ones that hinder our quantum computation capabilities. Software limitations are the other, less explored side of this medal. Using satellite image segmentation as a task example, we investigated how difficult it is to run a hybrid quantum-classical model on a real, publicly available quantum device. We also analyzed the costs of such endeavor and the change in quality of model.

Hyperspectral image segmentation with a machine learning model trained using quantum annealer

Training of machine learning models consumes large amounts of energy. Since the energy consumption becomes a major problem in the development and implementation of artificial intelligence systems there exists a need to investigate the ways to reduce use of the resources by these systems. In this work we study how application of quantum annealers could lead to reduction of energy cost in training models aiming at pixel-level segmentation of hyperspectral images. Following the results of QBM4EO team, we propose a classical machine learning model, partially trained using quantum annealer, for hyperspectral image segmentation. We show that the model trained using quantum annealer is better or at least comparable with models trained using alternative algorithms, according to the preselected, common metrics. While direct energy use comparison does not make sense at the current stage of quantum computing technology development, we believe that our work proves that quantum annealing should be considered as a tool for training at least some machine learning models.

AQMLator -- An Auto Quantum Machine Learning E-Platform

A successful Machine Learning (ML) model implementation requires three main components: training dataset, suitable model architecture and training procedure. Given dataset and task, finding an appropriate model might be challenging. AutoML, a branch of ML, focuses on automatic architecture search -- a meta method that aims at moving human from ML system design process. The success of ML and the development of quantum computing (QC) in recent years led to a birth of new fascinating field called Quantum Machine Learning (QML) that, amongst others, incorporates quantum computers into ML models. In this paper we present AQMLator, an Auto Quantum Machine Learning platform that aims to automatically propose and train the quantum layers of an ML model with minimal input from the user. This way, data scientists can bypass the entry barrier for QC and use QML. AQMLator uses standard ML libraries, making it easy to introduce into existing ML pipelines.