Google has announced a major breakthrough with its efforts to enable usable quantum computing. The company's Willow processor reportedly ran a complex quantum echo algorithm about 13,000 times faster than today's fastest classical supercomputers.
Willow represents a significant leap after Google's breakthrough with the Sycamore chip in 2019. Unlike the latter, the former superconducting chip has real value. According to results published in Nature, it has demonstrated its application in AI development, chemical modeling and advanced materials research.
This is how Google's superconducting quantum chip works
The Willow chip uses 105 superconducting qubits (qubit is short for quantum bit, the basic unit of information in quantum computing; it is similar to the bit in classical computing). Each qubit acts as a dummy atom and can store information in superposition or in multiple states at the same time.
When the qubits become entangled (a state in which two or more qubits influence each other regardless of the distance between them), they pass quantum information in real time. This allows the processor to analyze multiple solutions at the same time.
Quantum systems must be stable in order to maintain a predictable relationship between their quantum states over time. Therefore, Google designed Willow to operate near absolute zero, keeping away heat and vibration interference.
The chip's architecture is optimized for speed and precision, and the experiment showed single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.97 percent and entanglement gates of 99.88 percent. This makes Willow ideal for running large-scale quantum algorithms.
(Gate fidelity is a measure of how a quantum gate performs compared to its ideal, error-free version. The closer to 100 percent, the more it behaves like its theoretical model.)
How Google confirmed Willow's quantum computing capabilities
The Willow project is notable for its verifiability. Thanks to the ability of the Quantum Echoes algorithm results to be validated across different machines or laboratory conditions, Google was able to meet the key requirements for claiming quantum supremacy.
The Quantum Echoes algorithm helps researchers model molecular behavior, chemical bonds and electronic structures more accurately than classical simulations. The chip powered a supercomputer that solved the algorithm and produced results in one-thirteenth-of-a-thousandth of the time it would take a classic supercomputer.
As Google researcher Tom O'Brien said, it is Willow's reproducibility that separates theoretical and practical breakthroughs. He explained: “If we can’t prove the data is accurate, we can’t do anything with it.”
Another researcher on the project, Nobel laureate Michel H. Devoret, who was the lead physicist, said: “We have shown that electrical circuits can behave like atoms. Now we are showing what these artificial atoms can do.”
What does Google's Willow quantum computing breakthrough mean for AI and science?
The Willow superconductor chip can help significantly reduce the time it takes scientists to simulate biological systems. It also has the potential to address scenarios where classic data processing does not generate accurate data sets.
Google's processor can also be applied to new material designs and training data-efficient AI systems. With further validation, the Willow breakthrough could bring quantum computing to the threshold of practicality and scalability in solving industrial problems.
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