Quantum computing is starting to take off as not only a way to overcome the limits associated with current computers, but also potentially as a way to solve some of the biggest problems involved in society as a whole. Recently, Google (News - Alert) set up a new lab with a quantum computing focus out at NASA's Ames Research Center, and Google's goals for the quantum computing lab are nothing short of ambitious.

The lab in question--known as the "Quantum (News - Alert) Artificial Intelligence Lab--is set to focus on not only quantum computing in general, but how quantum computing might make current levels of machine learning even better, according to a blog post from Hartmut Neven, Google's director of engineering. Neven also advanced more specific possibilities for quantum computing and computers, including making better overall models of things so that predictions might be better made.

For instance, Neven described how curing diseases could be simpler if it was known how diseases take hold and develop in a human body. Perhaps more relevant to Google, Neven also described how building a better search engine could be done by better understanding both spoken questions and what's currently available on the Web, such that the two would better intersect and people would get the answers needed.

This isn't just about Google, however, as both Google and the Universities Space Research Association would be inviting researchers worldwide to get in on the lab's core system: a D-Wave Two quantum computer that offers up fully 512 qubits of processing and would be made available in the third quarter of this year, from July until September, so the quantum computing fun should start up fairly soon.

Google has already, according to Neven, put together some quantum machine learning algorithms, including one that offers highly efficient recognizers for rapid response, great for those on mobile devices. Another works with polluted data, especially things that are mislabeled, as commonly found on the Internet. There are hopes that the quantum computing lab will be able to offer a huge array of benefits, from better speech recognition to even protein folding, which adds stability to certain proteins, giving said proteins more overall use.

It's good to see that Google's offering up the time for other users, and it's likely also welcome--especially for Google's shareholders--that Google is looking to augment its bread-and-butter search business with a new technology to make it better and fend off the rapid advance of competitors like Bing and even Siri. The end result should be impressive, once it actually starts bearing fruit and that fruit gets put into play. How long that will take is anyone's guess, but it should be worth seeing when it finally arrives.