Hybrid quantum-classical unsupervised data clustering based on the Self-Organizing Feature Map

Unsupervised machine learning is one of the main techniques employed in artificial intelligence. Quantum computers offer opportunities to speed up such machine learning techniques. Here, we introduce an algorithm for quantum assisted unsupervised data clustering using the self-organizing feature map, a type of artificial neural network. We make a proof-of-concept realization of one of the central components on the IBM Q Experience and show that it allows us to reduce the number of calculations in a number of clusters. We compare the results with the classical algorithm on a toy example of unsupervised text clustering.