Wide variety of uses for AmazonWeb Services’ (AWS) new quantum computing-based random number generation service
(TechRadar) Will McCurdy’s recent article focuses on the use of the new quantum computing-based random number generation service offered by AmazonWeb Services (AWS) that was developed by the Australian National University’s Quantum Numbers project (AQN). IQT-News summarizes his description of the demand for a wide variety of use cases, from computer encryption to lotteries and gambling, as well as for scientific research.
AQN said the project, which has been operating out of ANU’s campus lab for the last 10 years, uses quantum technology to generate true random numbers in real time by measuring the quantum fluctuations of a vacuum. AQN researcher Dr Syed Assad said that the random number service can help meet users’ needs in “IT, data science and modeling” and that “you can’t have reliable models for forecasting and research simulation” without random numbers.
Assad also highlighted creative use cases for the quantum solution, saying the number can also be used by artists to “help with removing human biases from their creative work”.
“In computer gaming and smart contracts, true random numbers are also an indispensable resource,” said Assad. “We’ve even had a request from a father to generate random numbers that he then used as inspiration for his daughter’s name!”
AQN says it has received over two billion requests for random numbers from 70 countries since the project began, including clinical trials, simulating processes and events in computer games, generating secure passwords, simulating virus outbreak behaviors, and predicting the weather. “Through AWS Marketplace, ANU is offering an incredibly powerful source of randomness easily accessible to customers across the globe.”
AWS Marketplace users can make 100 random number requests per second via the service, at a cost of $0.005 per request.
Sandra K. Helsel, Ph.D. has been researching and reporting on frontier technologies since 1990. She has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.
