Google has presented a new chip, which, according to the statement of this technology giant, is what can be called a major breakthrough in the area of quantum computing, which is currently considered by many companies as the next frontier.
The achievements of the mentioned player in the global technology sector so far, in a certain sense, are something that exists within limited bounds. In this case, it is implied that most experts demonstrate a common opinion in the context of the statement that quantum computing does not yet have clear scenarios for practical application. At the same time, the mentioned circumstance does not mean that the specified computing is unsuitable for practical use and does not contain specific benefits. In this case, it is more appropriate to declare a technology the debut of which is the prospect of a more advanced future. The mentioned new technological times are not a fantasy scenario or something that the descendants of nowadays living people will see. Quantum computing is the prospect of the foreseeable future, but exactly when its large-scale debut will take place is still unknown.
Francesco Ricciuti, the associate at venture capital firm Runa Capital, stated the need for a ChatGPT moment for quantum. In this case, the chatbot from OpenAI was mentioned, which many experts call the starting point of the so-called artificial intelligence boom. ChatGPT has become a kind of visual demonstration of the impressive abilities of AI in solving tasks such as processing huge amounts of information, including within the framework of an analytical approach, and generating original content based on user prompts. A similar product in the quantum computing area could also become something like the initial stage of widespread popularity in the practical application space.
Proponents of the mentioned computing claim that it can solve tasks that are inaccessible in terms of the ability to perform for modern computers. In classical computing, information is stored in bits. Each bit is either one or zero. Quantum computing uses quantum bits or qubits. Qubits can be zero, one, or something in between.
It is expected that quantum computers will be able to process much larger amounts of information. Potentially the mentioned opportunities can lead to breakthroughs in areas such as science, medicine, and finance.
On Monday, December 9th, Google presented its newest Willow quantum chip.
Hartmut Neven, founder of Google Quantum AI, wrote in a blog post that typically the more qubits are used, the more errors occur, and the system becomes classic. Willow, according to the technology giant, reduces the number of errors exponentially as the number of qubits increases. Google stated that in this case, it cracked a key challenge in quantum error correction, which this area has been pursuing for almost 30 years.
The technology giant measured Willow’s performance using the so-called random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark. This benchmark is a computational task that is difficult for classical computers to solve.
The new chip from Google performed a computation in less than five minutes. It is worth noting that in this case, it means computing, which, according to the technology giant, one of the fastest modern supercomputers would cope with in 10 septillion years, or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 standard calendar years. Hartmut Neven stated that this mind-boggling number exceeds the known timescales in physics and significantly exceeds the age of the universe.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 10, the value of shares of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, rose by almost 4%. At the same time, as noted by the media, the impact of the debut of the new chip on the upward dynamic of securities is not unambiguously obvious.
Willow has demonstrated a new milestone in how quantum computers can deal with errors that happen during their operation. The corresponding statement was made by Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex. It was also separately noted that within the framework of the Willow functioning practice, the technique becomes more effective in reducing the number of errors the more extra qubits are being used to correct for these errors. According to the professor, this is a very important milestone for quantum computers.
The optimism that quantum computing will change the world, or at least become a factor in a fundamental rethinking of the role of computers in the corresponding space of existence, is significant. However, experts note that Google’s quantum computing breakthrough is still lacking in real-world uses.
Francesco Ricciuti stated that Google’s claims of success are based on tasks and benchmarks that are not really useful for practical cases. It was noted that the technology giant is trying to identify a really high problem for normal computers that it can solve with quantum computers. Francesco Ricciuti stated that it is amazing Google can do that, but it doesn’t really mean it is useful.
Winfried Hensinger stated that Willow is still too small to perform useful calculations. Also in this context, it was noted that quantum computers will require millions of qubits to solve really important industry problems. Willow has 105 qubits.
It is worth noting that Google’s newest chip is based on superconducting qubits, a technology that requires intensive cooling. The corresponding circumstance may become a limiting factor when scaling.
Winfried Hensinger suggested that it might be fundamentally hard to build quantum computers with such a large number of qubits using superconducting qubits as cooling so many qubits to the required temperature that is close to absolute zero would be difficult or impossible.
It is worth noting that Google stated the RCS benchmark has no known real-world applications. At the same time, the technology giant has done scientifically interesting simulations of quantum systems, which have led to new scientific discoveries but are still within the reach of classical computers.
Hartmut Neven stated Google seeks to step into the realm of algorithms that are beyond the reach of classical computers and that are useful for real-world, commercially relevant problems.
As we have reported earlier, KPMG Launches AI Partnership With Google Cloud.
