So you want to learn how to program a quantum computer. Now, there's a toolkit for that. Microsoft is releasing a free preview version of its Quantum Development Kit, which includes the Q# programming language, a quantum computing simulator and other resources for people who want to start writing applications for a quantum computer. The Q# programming language was built from the ground up specifically for quantum computing.

The Quantum Development Kit, which Microsoft first announced at its Ignite conference in September, is designed for developers who are eager to learn how to program on quantum computers whether or not they are experts in the field of quantum physics. It's deeply integrated into Visual Studio, Microsoft's suite of developer tools, so aspects of it will be familiar to people who are already developing applications in other programming languages. And it's designed to work with a local quantum simulator, also released as part of the kit, that can simulate around 30 logical qubits of quantum computing power using a typical laptop computer. That will allow developers to debug quantum code and test programs on small instances right on their own computers.

Today, Amazon Web Services announced DeepLens, its first fully programmable, deep learning-enabled wireless video camera designed for developers. It was revealed during AWS CEO Andy Jassy's keynote at its annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. AWS and Intel collaborated on the DeepLens camera to provide builders of all skill levels with the optimal tools needed to design and create artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning products.

AI and machine learning are poised to power a new generation of smart industries, including smart homes, smart retail, smart industrial and many others, making lives easier through intelligent interactions with devices. This collaboration reinforces Intel's commitment to providing developers with tools to create AI and machine learning products, and follows the recent introduction of the Intel Speech Enabling Developer Kit, which provides a complete audio front-end solution for far-field voice control and makes it easier for third-party developers to accelerate the design of consumer products integrating Alexa Voice Service.

NVIDIA today continued its support of the AI startup ecosystem with investments in three companies that are advancing the state of the art of GPU-accelerated data science.

Acting through its NVIDIA GPU Ventures arm, the company is investing in BlazingDB, an SQL data warehouse; Graphistry, a visual analysis data company; and H2O.ai, an open-source AI platform. These startups, all based in the U.S., align with NVIDIA's support of the GPU Open Analytics Initiative (GOAI), which was formed to foster the growth of GPU computing in accelerated analytics. "AI is fundamentally changing how we interact with data," said Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at NVIDIA. "These three companies are all rising stars in the data science industry. Their enthusiastic participation in the GOAI open source ecosystem will be instrumental to their ultimate success."

BlazingDB uses GPUs to expedite the process of parsing through large sets of data. The company, founded in 2015, built a GPU-accelerated SQL analytics engine to analyze data already implemented in enterprise organizations.

GE Healthcare and NVIDIA today announced they will deepen their 10-year partnership to bring the most sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) to GE Healthcare's 500,000 imaging devices globally and accelerate the speed at which healthcare data can be processed.

The scope of the partnership, detailed today at the 103rd annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), includes the announcement of the new NVIDIA-powered Revolution Frontier CT, advancements to the Vivid E95 4D Ultrasound and development of GE Healthcare's Applied Intelligence analytics platform.

The new CT system in the Revolution Family is two times faster in imaging processing than its predecessor, due to its use of NVIDIA's AI computing platform. The Revolution Frontier is FDA cleared and expected to deliver better clinical outcomes in liver lesion detection and kidney lesion characterization because of its speed - potentially reducing the need for unnecessary follow-ups, benefitting patients with compromised renal function and reducing non-interpretable scans with Gemstone Spectral Imaging Metal Artefact Reduction (GSI MAR).