Rethink the Role of Deep Learning towards Large-scale Quantum Systems

Yusheng Zhao, Chi Zhang, Yuxuan Du
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 267:77948-77975, 2025.

Abstract

Characterizing the ground state properties of quantum systems is fundamental to capturing their behavior but computationally challenging. Recent advances in AI have introduced novel approaches, with diverse machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models proposed for this purpose. However, the necessity and specific role of DL models in these tasks remain unclear, as prior studies often employ varied or impractical quantum resources to construct datasets, resulting in unfair comparisons. To address this, we systematically benchmark DL models against traditional ML approaches across three families of Hamiltonian, scaling up to $127$ qubits in three crucial ground-state learning tasks while enforcing equivalent quantum resource usage. Our results reveal that ML models often achieve performance comparable to or even exceeding that of DL approaches across all tasks. Furthermore, a randomization test demonstrates that measurement input features have minimal impact on DL models’ prediction performance. These findings challenge the necessity of current DL models in many quantum system learning scenarios and provide valuable insights into their effective utilization.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v267-zhao25ag, title = {Rethink the Role of Deep Learning towards Large-scale Quantum Systems}, author = {Zhao, Yusheng and Zhang, Chi and Du, Yuxuan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning}, pages = {77948--77975}, year = {2025}, editor = {Singh, Aarti and Fazel, Maryam and Hsu, Daniel and Lacoste-Julien, Simon and Berkenkamp, Felix and Maharaj, Tegan and Wagstaff, Kiri and Zhu, Jerry}, volume = {267}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {13--19 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlresearch/v267/main/assets/zhao25ag/zhao25ag.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/zhao25ag.html}, abstract = {Characterizing the ground state properties of quantum systems is fundamental to capturing their behavior but computationally challenging. Recent advances in AI have introduced novel approaches, with diverse machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models proposed for this purpose. However, the necessity and specific role of DL models in these tasks remain unclear, as prior studies often employ varied or impractical quantum resources to construct datasets, resulting in unfair comparisons. To address this, we systematically benchmark DL models against traditional ML approaches across three families of Hamiltonian, scaling up to $127$ qubits in three crucial ground-state learning tasks while enforcing equivalent quantum resource usage. Our results reveal that ML models often achieve performance comparable to or even exceeding that of DL approaches across all tasks. Furthermore, a randomization test demonstrates that measurement input features have minimal impact on DL models’ prediction performance. These findings challenge the necessity of current DL models in many quantum system learning scenarios and provide valuable insights into their effective utilization.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Rethink the Role of Deep Learning towards Large-scale Quantum Systems %A Yusheng Zhao %A Chi Zhang %A Yuxuan Du %B Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2025 %E Aarti Singh %E Maryam Fazel %E Daniel Hsu %E Simon Lacoste-Julien %E Felix Berkenkamp %E Tegan Maharaj %E Kiri Wagstaff %E Jerry Zhu %F pmlr-v267-zhao25ag %I PMLR %P 77948--77975 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/zhao25ag.html %V 267 %X Characterizing the ground state properties of quantum systems is fundamental to capturing their behavior but computationally challenging. Recent advances in AI have introduced novel approaches, with diverse machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models proposed for this purpose. However, the necessity and specific role of DL models in these tasks remain unclear, as prior studies often employ varied or impractical quantum resources to construct datasets, resulting in unfair comparisons. To address this, we systematically benchmark DL models against traditional ML approaches across three families of Hamiltonian, scaling up to $127$ qubits in three crucial ground-state learning tasks while enforcing equivalent quantum resource usage. Our results reveal that ML models often achieve performance comparable to or even exceeding that of DL approaches across all tasks. Furthermore, a randomization test demonstrates that measurement input features have minimal impact on DL models’ prediction performance. These findings challenge the necessity of current DL models in many quantum system learning scenarios and provide valuable insights into their effective utilization.
APA
Zhao, Y., Zhang, C. & Du, Y.. (2025). Rethink the Role of Deep Learning towards Large-scale Quantum Systems. Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 267:77948-77975 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/zhao25ag.html.

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