Google claimed that its new quantum chip, dubbed “Willow,” solved a standard computation in less than five minutes, which would currently take the world’s fastest supercomputer ten septillion years to complete. Along with high-performance benchmarks, researchers found a way to reduce errors.
Willow is the latest development in the field of quantum computing. It attempts to use particle physics to create a new type of computer. Errors are one of the greater challenges of quantum computing as qubits (units of computation in quantum computers) tend to exchange information with the environment rapidly, making it difficult to protect the data needed to complete a computation. Google published the findings in the scientific journal Nature, which showcased that “the more qubits we use in Willow, the more we reduce errors, and the more quantum the system becomes.”
The research follows Google’s 2019 announcement of a quantum processor which could complete a mathematical equation in three minutes, which IBM disputed at the time. Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven said, “This historic accomplishment is known in the field as ‘below threshold’ — being able to drive errors down while scaling up the number of qubits.” Being below the threshold is essential to show progress on error correction, as it has been a problem since quantum error correction was introduced by Peter Shor in 1995.
Neven said Willow “now has best-in-class performance,” with 105 qubits. Due to 105 qubits, the chip showcased high performance in the two system benchmarks, quantum error correction and random circuit sampling. The company’s next goal is to carry out the first useful and novel computation, which would be significant for real-world applications and one that typical computers cannot achieve. However, the company noted that the development of quantum computers for practical use would require the error rate to be lower than the one displayed by Willow at the moment.
Willow was created in one of Google’s facilities in Santa Barbara. Quantum technology will be vital in the near future for collecting AI training data to allow for tasks including the discovery of new medicine, the development of efficient batteries for electric cars, and progress in fusion and new energy options. Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM are currently working on their own quantum computing systems as well.
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