Last month, Google announced that it had achieved a long-sought-after breakthrough in computing called “quantum supremacy.” Now the tech giant has released a statement to stand by its claim.
A quantum machine doesn’t work the same way as your regular computer does. Rather than depend on silicon chips, these machines rely on the ways some objects act as the sub-atomic level – or when exposed to severe cold.
This could result in a new kind of computer that calculates at speed beyond anything we’ve ever seen. Along with driving advancements in artificial intelligence, such a device can easily overwhelm the most sophisticated encryptions.
As a result, quantum computing is a national security priority to the United States government and China. Also, the big players in the tech industry, such as Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and Google, are investing heavily in quantum computing.
However, from this list, only Google seems to have attained Quantum Supremacy.
Google’s Quantum Supremacy Claim
In a paper published in the science journal Nature, the search engine giant said that its Santa Barbara research lab had achieved quantum supremacy. In other words, Google’s quantum computer was able to perform a task that’s inconceivable with the current technology.
The computer reportedly completed a mathematical calculation within 3 minutes, 20 seconds. Even the largest supercomputers would spend over 10,000 years on the task, and still not complete it, claimed Google.
While the tech giant’s paper impressed some quantum computing enthusiasts, others were a bit intrigued. IBM, on the other hand, released a blog post to dispute Google’s claim of quantum supremacy.
According to the multinational IT giant, current supercomputers can theoretically run the same calculation in less than two and a half days, not 10,000 years, as Google had claimed.
In a statement to NYT, head of IBM research lab in Yorktown Heights, Dario Gil said:
“This is not about final and absolute dominance over classical computers.”
With that said, Gil admitted that quantum computing could offer a commercial and scientific advantage as soon as 2020.
Google responded almost immediately to IBM’s post. In a statement to the press, a spokesperson from the search engine company said:
“We’ve already peeled away from classical computers, onto a totally different trajectory. We welcome proposals to advance simulation techniques, though it’s crucial to test them on an actual supercomputer, as we have.”
Whatever the case may be, Google’s machine shows that a complex quantum system is within reach.
The machines can only get better with time to gain commercial relevance. Not only will this improve cryptography, but it could help create new medicine and materials too.
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