Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for constructing and programming quantum hardware for machine learning processes. A Quantum Statistic Machine (QSM) is described, consisting of three distinct classes of strongly interacting degrees of freedom including visible, hidden and control quantum subspaces or subsystems. The QSM is defined with a programmable non-equilibrium ergodic open quantum Markov chain with a unique attracting steady state in the space of density operators. The solution of an information processing task, such as a statistical inference or optimization task, can be encoded into the quantum statistics of an attracting steady state, where quantum inference is performed by minimizing the energy of a real or fictitious quantum Hamiltonian. The couplings of the QSM between the visible and hidden nodes may be trained to solve hard optimization or inference tasks.
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