Key takeaways
- Google’s Willow quantum chip outperforms supercomputers by solving tasks in 5 minutes compared to 10 seven billion years.
- No real-world applications have yet been identified, but Willow’s potential uses span medicine, energy and AI, including drug discovery and fusion energy research.
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Google has unveiled its latest quantum chip, Willow, demonstrating unprecedented performance in solving tasks in minutes that would take classical supercomputers 10 seven billion years.
The chip, announced by Hartmut Neven, founder and head of Google Quantum AI, made a breakthrough in quantum error correction, a process that ensures precise calculations essential for reliable quantum computing.
Willow completed a random circuit sampling calculation in less than 5 minutes, a task that would take about 10 seven billion years on Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer.
The chip showed an exponential reduction in errors as the number of qubits increased.
“Errors are one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing. Willow demonstrates that the more qubits we use, the more we reduce errors – a turning point for scalable quantum computing,” Neven said.
The chip, manufactured at Google’s Santa Barbara facility, uses superconducting qubits, a technology also used by IBM and Amazon.
“Our money is on superconducting qubits,” Neven said, while acknowledging that the company continues to explore other approaches such as neutral atom qubits.
Although progress is notable, Google recognizes that challenges remain in achieving practical applications.
“If you can’t win on at least one problem, you won’t win on a useful problem either,” Neven explained, while noting that commercially relevant use cases are “now within reach.”
Although practical applications have not yet been realized, potential future uses of quantum computing span medicine, energy and artificial intelligence, including areas such as drug discovery, battery design and fusion energy research.
Neven said advanced AI would stand to gain enormously from quantum computing, as it could unlock game-changing opportunities in these critical sectors.
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