A man shows Google Quantum AI’s “Willow” chip in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on Dec. 6, 2024.
Google | via reuters
Google has unveiled a new chip that it says is a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing, an area seen as the next frontier for many tech companies.
However, while Google’s achievements are known to advance the field, experts say quantum computing still has no real-world applications.
“We need a ChatGPAT moment for quantum,” Francesco Ricciuti, a partner at venture capital firm Runa Capital, told CNBC on Tuesday, referencing OpenAI’s chatbot, which has been credited with sparking a boom in artificial intelligence. “It’s probably not that thing.”
What has Google claimed?
Proponents of quantum computing claim that it will be able to solve problems that current computers cannot.
In classical computing, information is stored in bits. Each bit is either a one or a zero. Quantum computing uses quantum bits or qubits which can be zero, one or something in between.
The theory is that quantum computers will be able to process extremely large amounts of data, leading to potential breakthroughs in fields such as medicine, science, and finance.
Google on Monday Wilo, announced its latest quantum chip.
“Generally the more qubits you use, the more errors there will be, and the system will become classical,” Hartmut Neven, founder of Google Quantum AI, wrote in a blog post.
Willow can reduce errors “increasingly” as the number of qubits increases, the US tech giant said, which “solves a key challenge in quantum error correction that the field has been pursuing for nearly 30 years.”
Google Quantum AI’s Hartmut Neven (left) and Anthony Megrant (right) check a cryostat refrigerator to cool quantum computing chips at Google’s Quantum AI Lab in Santa Barbara, California, US on November 25, 2024. Reuters/Stephen Nellis
Stephen Nellis | reuters
Google measured its performance using Willow So-called Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) benchmarkWhich presents a computational task that is difficult for classical computers to solve.
Willow performed a calculation in less than five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years — or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years — Google said.
“This staggering number exceeds timescales known in physics and far exceeds the age of the universe,” Neven said.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet were nearly 4% higher Tuesday morning. It is unclear whether the move was due to Willow’s release.
Has Google Really Made a Big Breakthrough?
According to Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex, Google’s Willow chip “demonstrates a new milestone in how quantum computers can deal with errors that occur during their operation.”
“Their technique becomes more effective in reducing errors as more additional qubits are being used to correct these errors. This is a very important milestone for a quantum computer.”
But despite optimism that quantum computing could one day change the world – or at least the role of computers in it – experts in the field have suggested that Google’s quantum computing breakthrough still has little real-world application.
Runa Capital’s Ricciuti said Google’s claims of success are based on “tasks and benchmarks that are not really useful for practical matters.”
“They’re trying to define a really high problem for normal computers that they can solve with quantum computers. It’s amazing that they can do that, but it doesn’t really mean that it Useful,” Ricciuti said.
Hensinger said Willow is “still too small to do useful calculations” and that quantum computers would need “millions of qubits” to truly solve important industry problems. Willow has 105 qubits.
Meanwhile, Google’s chip is based on superconducting qubits, a technology that requires rapid cooling, which could be a limiting factor in scaling.
“Building a quantum computer with such a large number of qubits using superconducting qubits could be fundamentally difficult because cooling that many qubits to the required temperature – close to absolute zero – would be difficult or impossible,” Hensinger said.
Google’s push toward real-world use
For its part, Google says the RCS benchmark has “no known real-world applications.” Meanwhile, the company has conducted “scientifically interesting simulations of quantum systems, leading to new scientific discoveries but still within reach of classical computers.”
Google is now aiming to do both at the same time.
Google’s Neven said, “Our goal is to do both at the same time – step into the realm of algorithms that are beyond the reach of classical computers and that are useful for real-world, commercially relevant problems.”
Yet both Hensinger and Ricciuti agree that Google’s development has increased enthusiasm for quantum computing and that the field will continue to grow.
“This result further increases confidence that humanity will be able to build practical quantum computers, leading to some of the most highly impactful applications quantum computers will ever be known for,” Hensinger said.
