Quantum deep learning by sampling neural nets with a quantum annealer

Abstract

We demonstrate the feasibility of framing a classically learned deep neural network as an energy based model that can be processed on a one-step quantum annealer in order to exploit fast sampling times. We propose approaches to overcome two hurdles for high resolution image classification on a quantum processing unit (QPU): the required number and the binary nature of the model states. With this novel method we successfully transfer a pretrained convolutional neural network to the QPU. By taking advantage of the strengths of quantum annealing, we show the potential for classification speedup of at least one order of magnitude.