  Many artificial intelligence (AI) problems naturally map to NP-hard
optimization problems. This has the interesting consequence that enabling
human-level capability in machines often requires systems that can handle
formally intractable problems. This issue can sometimes (but possibly not
always) be resolved by building special-purpose heuristic algorithms, tailored
to the problem in question. Because of the continued difficulties in automating
certain tasks that are natural for humans, there remains a strong motivation
for AI researchers to investigate and apply new algorithms and techniques to
hard AI problems. Recently a novel class of relevant algorithms that require
quantum mechanical hardware have been proposed. These algorithms, referred to
as quantum adiabatic algorithms, represent a new approach to designing both
complete and heuristic solvers for NP-hard optimization problems. In this work
we describe how to formulate image recognition, which is a canonical NP-hard AI
problem, as a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem. The
QUBO format corresponds to the input format required for D-Wave superconducting
adiabatic quantum computing (AQC) processors.
