Quantum mechanics is so weird that scientists need AI to choose the experiments - CNET

Quantum mechanics is one of the weirdest fields in science. Even physicists find it tough to wrap their heads around it. As Michael Merrifeld of the University of Nottingham says, "If it doesn't confuse you, that really just tells you that you haven't understood it."

This makes designing experiments very tricky. However, these experiments are vital if we want to develop quantum computing and cryptography. So a team of researchers decided, since the human mind has such a hard time with quantum science, maybe a "brain" without human preconceptions would be better at designing the experiments.

Melvin, an algorithm designed by Anton Zeilinger and his team at the University of Vienna, has proven this to be the case. The research has been published in the joual Physical Review Letters.

The concept was dreamed up by doctoral student Mario Krenn, who was trying to design a particular experiment by putting together lasers and mirrors, in such a way that would lead to a specific quantum state. At one point, he realised that he was just guessing, and that an algorithm would be able to guess just as well as a human, but much faster.

"So I defined the goal, made an algorithm and let it run oveight," he said in a statement. "In the moing there was indeed a solution.txt file. That was quite an exciting day."