Google announced on Monday that it has overcome a challenge in quantum computing with the development of a new generation of chips.
The company claims to have solved a complex mathematical problem in just five minutes—an issue that would take a classical computer longer than the history of the universe to address.
Along with other tech giants like Microsoft and IBM, Google is racing to harness the potential of quantum computing, which promises to dramatically outperform current supercomputers. While the specific problem solved by Google’s Santa Barbara, California quantum lab doesn’t have commercial applications, the company is hopeful that quantum computers will one day address challenges in fields like medicine, battery chemistry, and artificial intelligence—areas that are currently beyond the reach of traditional computing.
The results, released on Monday, were based on a new chip called Willow, which contains 105 “qubits”—the fundamental units of quantum computing. Qubits are powerful but prone to errors, as they can be affected by even the smallest disturbances, such as subatomic particles from cosmic events.
To overcome this, scientists have been working on quantum error-correction techniques since the 1990s. Google’s breakthrough involves connecting the qubits in such a way that error rates decrease as more qubits are added. Furthermore, the company has developed a method to correct errors in real time, a crucial step in making quantum computers more practical for everyday use.
“We are past the break-even point,” said Hartmut Neven, the head of Google’s Quantum AI unit. He expressed confidence that the company had achieved a significant milestone in quantum computing.
In 2019, IBM challenged Google’s earlier claims about the power of its quantum chip, which was said to have solved a problem in 200 seconds that would take a classical computer 10,000 years. IBM argued that, under different assumptions, a classical computer could solve the problem in just two-and-a-half days.
In response, Google addressed some of these concerns in its latest release, asserting that even under ideal conditions, a classical computer would still require a billion years to match the performance of its new chip.
While some of Google’s competitors are building chips with a larger number of qubits, Google is focusing on developing the most reliable qubits possible. Anthony Megrant, chief architect for Google Quantum AI, noted that the company’s goal is not simply to increase the number of qubits, but to enhance the stability and functionality of each one.
To support its quantum advancements, Google has moved from using a shared facility at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to a dedicated fabrication facility for its Willow chips. This new facility is expected to accelerate the development of future chips, which are tested in large cryostats—refrigerators used to chill the chips to extremely low temperatures.
Megrant emphasized the importance of speed in quantum research: “If we have a good idea, we want somebody on the team to be able to get that into the clean room and into one of these cryostats as fast as possible, so we can get lots of cycles of learning.”
