The Quantum AI team is crowing and claiming that it can solve a problem in five minutes that would take a mega computer more time than there is in the universe.
Last December, the Google team announced the launch of Willow, its latest quantum chip, marking a milestone in the quest for practical quantum computing.
This advance not only represents a significant technical achievement, but also opens up new possibilities for solving complex problems that are beyond the reach of classical computers.
Correcting quantum errors
One of the biggest challenges in quantum computing is error correction, due to the tendency of qubits to interact with their environment, making it difficult to maintain the information necessary for calculations. Willow tackles this problem in an innovative way.
According to Google, the more qubits used in Willow, the more errors are reduced, making the system more quantum. This achievement, called “staying below the threshold”, implies the ability to decrease errors as the number of qubits increases, something that had not been achieved since Peter Shor introduced the concept of quantum error correction in 1995. This advance is crucial for the construction of functional large-scale quantum computers.
Performance that defies the laws of time
To evaluate Willow’s performance, a random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark test was used, considered the most demanding benchmark for quantum computers. The results were astonishing.
Willow performed a calculation in less than five minutes that would take one of the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 quadrillion years. This figure, which exceeds the age of the universe, demonstrates the potential of quantum computing to overcome the limitations of classical computing.
State-of-the-art manufacturing and future prospects
Willow was manufactured at Google’s state-of-the-art plant in Santa Barbara. Systems engineering is critical in the design and manufacture of quantum chips, where each component must be perfectly integrated to maximize performance. With 105 qubits, Willow offers superior performance in quantum error correction and random circuit sampling.
The next step is to use current quantum chips to perform practical calculations with real-world applications. Google invites researchers, engineers and developers to join this effort, using its open source software and trainingresources. Quantum computing has the potential to transform fields such as artificial intelligence, drug discovery, battery design and the development of new alternative energies.
Parallel universes?
Hartmut Neven, founder and leader of Google Quantum AI, himself referred to the reasons that would underpin its capacity that transcends 10 thousand trillion years.
It is positioned directly on a level comparable to science fiction: “This dizzying figure exceeds the time scales used in physics and far exceeds the age of the universe. It lends credibility to the notion that quantum computing occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that, as first predicted by David Deutsch, we live in a multiverse”.
This is positioned directly on a level comparable to science fiction: “This dizzying figure exceeds the time scales used in physics and far exceeds the age of the universe. It lends credibility to the notion that quantum computing occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that, as first predicted by David Deutsch, we live in a multiverse”.
