Google Claims ‘Quantum Supremacy,’ Marking a Major Milestone in Computing - Computer solves impossible...
Google Claims ‘Quantum
Supremacy,’ Marking a Major Milestone in Computing
Tech Pioneers Weigh in on the Vast Potential of Quantum Computing
Humanity is on the cusp of a new computing paradigm that promises
to unlock new frontiers in science, business, and beyond: the quantum computer.
Expect an influx of improved medicines, materials, and even models of the
universe.
In what may be a huge milestone in computing, Google says it has achieved "quantum supremacy," an experimental demonstration of the
superiority of a quantum computer over a traditional one.
The
claim, made in a new scientific paper, is the most serious indication yet that
the promise of quantum computers—an emerging but unproven type of machine—is
becoming reality, including their potential to solve formerly ungraspable
mathematical problems.
Essentially,
Google purports to have pulled off a stunt on a quantum computer that no
classical machine—not even the world's most powerful supercomputer—can
replicate.
Fortune obtained a copy of
Google's paper, which was posted to NASA.gov earlier this week before being taken down. The Financial Times first reported the news.
A
Google spokesperson declined to confirm the authenticity of the paper and its
results. NASA did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
A
source at Google familiar with the situation suggested, however, that NASA
accidentally published the paper early, before its team's claims could be
thoroughly vetted through scientific peer review, a process that could take
anywhere from weeks to months.
If
the paper holds up under the scrutiny of the scientific community, it will
herald a watershed moment in quantum science. Its central claim counters doubt
that some unforeseen law of nature may prevent quantum computers from operating
as hoped.
"Quantum
speedup is achievable in a real-world system and is not precluded by any hidden
physical laws," the Google researchers write.
Further,
they predict that quantum computing power will "grow at a double
exponential rate," besting even the exponential rate that defined Moore's
Law, a trend that observed traditional computing power to double roughly every
two years.
The experiment
The
experiment described in the paper sampled randomly generated numbers produced
through a specialized scenario involving quantum phenomena. The researchers
said they determined that their quantum computer beat regular computers at the
task, which involved calculating the output of certain specialized circuits.
"While
our processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of the quantum
circuit 1 million times, a state-of-the-art supercomputer would require
approximately 10,000 years to perform the equivalent task," the researchers
said.
Google's
quantum computer, dubbed "Sycamore," contained 53-qubits, or
"quantum bits," a measure of the machine's potential power. The team
scaled back from a 72-qubit device, dubbed "Bristlecone," it had
previously designed.
The
researchers estimate that performing the same experiment on a Google Cloud
server would take 50 trillion hours—too long to be feasible. On the quantum
processor, it took only 30 seconds, they said.
"Quantum
processors based on superconducting qubits can now perform computations...beyond
the reach of the fastest classical supercomputers available today," the
researchers write. "To our knowledge, this experiment marks the first
computation that can only be performed on a quantum processor."
Outlook
Businesses
are hoping the advancement of quantum computers—by tech giants such as Google, IBM, and Intel, as well as startups such as Rigetti Computing—will lead
to unprecedented scientific and technical breakthroughs in the coming years.
They're eyeing applications from new chemical reactions for the development of
drugs, fertilizers, and batteries, to the improvement of optimization algorithms
and mathematical modeling.
As
exciting as Google's result is, other researchers caution against overhyping
it, fearing that inflated expectations of imminent advances will lead to a
popped bubble.
Dario
Gil, head of IBM Research, advises against using quantum supremacy as a metric
with which to measure progress in the field. "The experiment and the
'supremacy' term will be misunderstood by nearly all," he told Fortune.
Gil
described the experiment as a highly special case "laboratory
experiment" that has "no practical applications." He added,
"Quantum computers will never reign 'supreme' over classical computers,
but will rather work in concert with them, since each have their unique
strengths."
Jim
Clarke, Intel Labs' director of quantum hardware, called Google's update
"a notable mile marker." He said that "a commercially viable
quantum computer will require" many R&D advancements before becoming a
reality.
"While
development is still at mile one of this marathon, we strongly believe in the
potential of this technology," Clarke added.
The
Google team, which first wrote about their goal in a Nature article two years ago, appears to be more hopeful about
the short-term prospects of its findings. "As a result of these
developments, quantum computing is transitioning from a research topic to a
technology that unlocks new computational capabilities," the researchers
write.
"We
are only one creative algorithm away from valuable near-term
applications."
Comments
Post a Comment