Abstract State-of-the-art quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms fail to offer practical advantages over their notoriously powerful classical counterparts, due to the limited learning capabilities of QML algorithms, the constrained computational resources available on today’s noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, and the empirically designed circuit ansatz for QML models. In this work, we address these challenges by proposing a hybrid quantum–classical neural network (CaNN), which we call QCLIP, for Quantum Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training. Rather than training a supervised QML model to predict human annotations, QCLIP focuses on more practical transferable visual representation learning, where the developed model can be generalized to work on unseen downstream datasets. QCLIP is implemented by using CaNNs to generate low-dimensional data feature embeddings followed by quantum neural networks to adapt and generalize the learned representation in the quantum Hilbert space. Experimental results show that the hybrid QCLIP model can be efficiently trained for representation learning. We evaluate the representation transfer capability of QCLIP against the classical Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training model on various datasets. Simulation results and real-device results on NISQ IBM_Auckland quantum computer both show that the proposed QCLIP model outperforms the classical CLIP model in all test cases. As the field of QML on NISQ devices is continually evolving, we anticipate that this work will serve as a valuable foundation for future research and advancements in this promising area.
Abstract State-of-the-art quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms fail to offer practical advantages over their notoriously powerful classical counterparts, due to the limited learning capabilities of QML algorithms, the constrained computational resources available on today’s noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, and the empirically designed circuit ansatz for QML models. In this work, we address these challenges by proposing a hybrid quantum–classical neural network (CaNN), which we call QCLIP, for Quantum Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training. Rather than training a supervised QML model to predict human annotations, QCLIP focuses on more practical transferable visual representation learning, where the developed model can be generalized to work on unseen downstream datasets. QCLIP is implemented by using CaNNs to generate low-dimensional data feature embeddings followed by quantum neural networks to adapt and generalize the learned representation in the quantum Hilbert space. Experimental results show that the hybrid QCLIP model can be efficiently trained for representation learning. We evaluate the representation transfer capability of QCLIP against the classical Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training model on various datasets. Simulation results and real-device results on NISQ IBM_Auckland quantum computer both show that the proposed QCLIP model outperforms the classical CLIP model in all test cases. As the field of QML on NISQ devices is continually evolving, we anticipate that this work will serve as a valuable foundation for future research and advancements in this promising area.
Protein-ligand binding affinity is critical in drug discovery, but experimentally determining it is time-consuming and expensive. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used to predict binding affinity, significantly accelerating this process. However, the high-performance requirements and vast datasets involved in affinity prediction demand increasingly large AI models, requiring substantial computational resources and training time. Quantum machine learning has emerged as a promising solution to these challenges. In particular, hybrid quantum-classical models can reduce the number of parameters while maintaining or improving performance compared to classical counterparts. Despite these advantages, challenges persist: why hybrid quantum models achieve these benefits, whether quantum neural networks (QNNs) can replace classical neural networks, and whether such models are feasible on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. This study addresses these challenges by proposing a hybrid quantum neural network (HQNN) that empirically demonstrates the capability to approximate non-linear functions in the latent feature space derived from classical embedding. The primary goal of this study is to achieve a parameter-efficient model in binding affinity prediction while ensuring feasibility on NISQ devices. Numerical results indicate that HQNN achieves comparable or superior performance and parameter efficiency compared to classical neural networks, underscoring its potential as a viable replacement. This study highlights the potential of hybrid QML in computational drug discovery, offering insights into its applicability and advantages in addressing the computational challenges of protein-ligand binding affinity prediction.
Image classification is an important application for deep learning. With the advent of quantum technology, quantum neural networks (QNNs) have become the focus of research. Traditional deep learning-based image classification involves using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract features from the image and a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) network to create the decision boundaries. However, quantum circuits with parameters can extract rich features from images and also create complex decision boundaries. This paper proposes a hybrid QNN (H-QNN) model designed for binary image classification that capitalizes on the strengths of quantum computing and classical neural networks. Our H-QNN model uses a compact, two-qubit quantum circuit integrated with a classical convolutional architecture, making it highly efficient for computation on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices that are currently leading the way in practical quantum computing applications. Our H-QNN model significantly enhances classification accuracy, achieving a 90.1% accuracy rate on binary image datasets. In addition, we have extensively evaluated baseline CNN and our proposed H-QNN models for image retrieval tasks. The obtained quantitative results exhibit the generalization of our H-QNN for downstream image retrieval tasks. Furthermore, our model addresses the issue of overfitting for small datasets, making it a valuable tool for practical applications.
Image classification plays a vital role in large-scale data analysis, especially in object recognition tasks using advanced Deep Learning (DL) frameworks. However, the growing complexity and computational demands of modern DL models have introduced challenges related to scalability and efficiency. Quantum Computing (QC) has emerged as a promising alternative, capable of addressing these limitations by leveraging the principles of Quantum Machine Learning (QML). However, many existing QML models require a large number of qubits, which poses limitations within the current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era. This work introduces a novel Adaptive Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (AQCNN) designed for efficient and scalable image classification within the constraints of NISQ devices. Addressing the limitations of existing QML approaches, particularly the high qubit requirements, AQCNN incorporates a resource-efficient quantum convolutional layer that performs localized quantum filtering using parameterized quantum circuits. A classical preprocessing layer encodes input features to reduce qubit load, followed by quantum embedding and hybrid quantum-classical layers that optimize feature extraction and classification performance. The model leverages an adaptive quantum convolution strategy, minimizing quantum gate depth and circuit complexity while preserving critical spatial hierarchies in image data. Evaluated on benchmark datasets, AQCNN achieved 95.88% accuracy on MNIST and 95.68% on FMNIST, outperforming comparable QML architectures. Additionally, the model supports scalable execution through parallel quantum circuit arrays, enabling practical deployment on current quantum hardware. This architecture demonstrates a significant advance in quantum-assisted image classification, balancing performance with qubit and gate efficiency. The integration of adaptive quantum convolution and hybrid processing not only enhances classification accuracy but also provides a viable path forward for deploying QML solutions under realistic hardware constraints.
The emergence of deep vision models such as convolutional neural networks and vision transformers has revolutionized computer vision, enabling significant advancements in image classification, object detection, and segmentation. In parallel, the rapid development of quantum computing has spurred interest in quantum machine learning (QML), which integrates the strengths of quantum computation with the representational power of deep learning. In QML, parameterized quantum circuits offer the potential to capture complex image features, define complex decision boundaries, and provide other computational advantages. This paper investigates hybrid quantum-classical vision architectures, with a focus on hybrid quantum-classical convolutional neural networks and hybrid quantum-classical vision transformers. These hybrid models explore both quantum pre-processing and post-processing of data, respectively, where quantum circuits are strategically integrated into the data pipeline to enhance model performance. Our results suggest that these hybrid models can enhance accuracy and computational efficiency in vision-related tasks, even with the constraints of current noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices.
Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices have led to the creation of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, which have provided an innovative design to improve classical machine learning. This article focuses on a review of Hybrid Quantum-Classical Neural Networks (H-QCNNs) in image classification, which is an emerging area that attempts to exploit the representational ability of parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) and the proven feature extraction capabilities of classical deep learning. We empirically examine the current tendencies in architecture, such as quanvolutional networks, sequential models, and variational quantum classifiers, and critically assess their performance on standard and custom data. The literature analysis shows a large performance difference between noiseless simulation and execution on real hardware, indicating the highly problematic aspects of scaling beyond binary tasks, quantum noise, and a lack of standardized benchmarking. Moreover, we mention such innovative contributions as the small H-QNN model that offers comparable accuracy, yet meets strict NISQ requirements. Last but not least, the current review offers a systematic taxonomy of H-QCNN architectures, a comparative study of methodology options, and a clear roadmap to future research to reach a workable quantum advantage in computer vision. It is a resource to the beginners as well as a reference to the professionals working in the field, so the field would be moved to more powerful, scalable, and hardware-conscious ways of implementation.
Quantum Computing is a very promising paradigm given the ability that Quantum brings in terms of recognizing patterns which their classical counterparts very likely fail at.The intersection of Quantum Computing and Machine Learning gave rise to Quantum Machine Learning, which brings the power of Quantum mechanics to accelerate the progress of Machine Learning. However, Quantum Machine Learning still has its own set of challenges, given the state of Quantum Hardware currently. Here we propose QcNet: A Hybrid Quantum-Classical Neural Network which combines a tensor network with a parameterized quantum circuit. Here we modify the Quantum Neural Network by placing the parametrized quantum circuit convolutional layer at the top followed by some classical CNN layers to make it more feasible for the near term NISQ era and to make it scale to 43 classes. The Quantum Convolutional Layer extracts the higher level features and passes it to the classical layers for further processing. Our model is an end-to-end solution to train a quantum-style model over a multi-class supervised learning problem. This model pushes the limits beyond binary or few class classification and successfully performs well over multiclass classification tasks over 43 classes of the GTSRB dataset. Also it is highly flexible and can be adopted well in the NISQ era, considering the amount of quantum resources available.