Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Google unveils quantum computer breakthrough; critics say wait a qubit

Published 11/01/2019, 09:14 PM
Updated 11/01/2019, 09:14 PM
© Reuters. A handout picture shows a component of Google's Quantum Computer in the Santa Barbara lab

© Reuters. A handout picture shows a component of Google's Quantum Computer in the Santa Barbara lab

By Douglas Busvine and Paresh Dave

BERLIN/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's Google said on Wednesday it had achieved a breakthrough in computing research by using a quantum computer to solve in minutes a complex problem that would take today's most powerful supercomputer thousands of years to crack.

Google researchers expect that quantum computers within a few years will fuel advancements in fields such as artificial intelligence, materials science, and chemistry. The company is racing rivals including IBM (NYSE:IBM) Corp and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) to be the first to commercialize the technology and sell it through its cloud computing business.

"We're hoping that when people start using this and looking at performance stability and cloud interface, they'll get really excited about what we have to offer at Google," John Martinis, the company's chief scientist for quantum hardware, told reporters.

The breakthrough was described in a paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5#Sec4 published in science journal Nature. It followed weeks of controversy since a draft leaked over whether Google's claim of "quantum supremacy" was valid.

IBM said a supercomputer employing a different set-up could solve the same challenge in under three days, while chipmaker Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) said "quantum practicality" remained years away.

Google defended its position, but did not dispute rivals' contentions. It has manufactured a handful of chips with 54 'qubits', vastly more powerful than the standard 64-bit chip in many consumer devices. However, for the technology to be useful to customers it would need to make chips with thousands of qubits.

Martinis said Google sees "a pathway" to a computer with 1,000 qubits and expressed confidence that it had a reliable process to make its new chip, dubbed Sycamore.

The U.S. and Chinese governments have led in the burgeoning quantum technology field, pledging billions of dollars in funding to corporate and state researchers to fast-track quantum development and mitigate possible issues, including the tech's expected ability to break digital encryption.

Google has been among the beneficiaries of the American support. "The United States has taken a great leap forward in quantum computing," said U.S. chief technology officer Michael Kratsios on Wednesday.

LONG-HELD DREAM

For decades, computer scientists have sought to harness quantum physics, laws governing the behavior of particles that are smaller than atoms and can simultaneously exist in different states.

Quantum bits, or qubits, can be set to one and zero at the same time, unlike today's computer bits that are either ones or zeros. This superposition property multiplies exponentially as qubits become entangled with each other, meaning the more qubits connected, the vastly more powerful a quantum computer becomes.

But there is a catch: Quantum researchers need to cool qubits to about absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius or -460 degrees Fahrenheit) to limit vibration - or "noise" - that causes errors in calculations. It is in this challenging task that Google, which has designed much of its own electronics and used liquid helium for cooling, has made significant progress.

CEO Sundar Pichai compared the achievement to building the first rocket to leave Earth's atmosphere and touch the edge of space, an advance that brought interplanetary travel into the realm of the possible.

"For those of us working in science and technology, it's the 'hello world' moment we've been waiting for - the most meaningful milestone to date in the quest to make quantum computing a reality," Pichai wrote in a blog https://blog.google/perspectives/sundar-pichai/what-our-quantum-computing-milestone-means.

Sycamore, measuring about 10 mm (0.39 inch) across, is made using aluminum and indium parts sandwiched between two silicon wafers. In their experiment this year, the researchers were able to get 53 of Sycamore's qubits to interact in a quantum state.

They then had the quantum computer detect patterns in a series of seemingly random numbers, and it succeeded in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. They estimated that the same problem would take 10,000 years for a Summit supercomputer - the most powerful in the world today - to solve.

HOLD ON A QUBIT

While the peer-reviewed research has drawn plaudits, with MIT's William D. Oliver comparing it to the Wright brothers' first flights, skeptics say Google is over-selling its achievement.

IBM said a supercomputer with additional disk storage can solve the random number problem in at most 2-1/2 days and with greater accuracy. It also said Google risked misleading the public by implying the new-style computers would replace existing ones.

"Quantum computers will never reign 'supreme' over classical computers, but will rather work in concert with them, since each have their unique strengths," Dario Gil, director of research at IBM, wrote in a blog https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/10/on-quantum-supremacy.

Torsten Siebert, manager of the quantum computing research program at Germany's Fraunhofer Society, agreed that "progress was likely to be achieved through such hybrid combinations."

Researchers also have expressed concern about quantum computers being used, for example, to unseal secure data and passwords or enable new forms of surveillance.

But before quantum computers can break codes, security experts have plenty of time to adapt, Martinis said.

© Reuters. A handout picture shows a component of Google's Quantum Computer in the Santa Barbara lab

"We're pretty confident we'll all stay safe and secure in the future," he said.

Latest comments

Google is going to mine cryptos and get all the remaining coins in a day coin prices are going to drop
crypto developers have been working to protect against this for awhile in case someone managed to make one
BTC as long as you never user the same address twice they can't ever hack
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.