On Beating Supercomputers, with "Quantum Computing"
Last week, in a posting at Google AI Blog, John Martinis (Chief Scientist Quantum Hardware) and Sergio Boixo (Chief Scientist Quantum Computing Theory) discussed their efforts to achieve "quantum supremacy". Their comments included:
"Physicists have been talking about the power of quantum computing for over 30 years, but the questions have always been: will it ever do something useful and is it worth investing in?
"Our machine performed the target computation in 200 seconds, and from measurements in our experiment we determined that it would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to produce a similar output.
"our team has already been working on near-term applications, including quantum physics simulation and quantum chemistry, as well as new applications in generative machine learning, among other areas.
"we’re investing in our team and technology to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer as quickly as possible. Such a device promises a number of valuable applications. For example, we can envision quantum computing helping to design new materials — lightweight batteries for cars and airplanes, new catalysts that can produce fertilizer more efficiently (a process that today produces over 2% of the world’s carbon emissions), and more effective medicines.
"Achieving the necessary computational capabilities will still require years of hard engineering and scientific work."
NOTES: 1) "Quantum supremacy" occurs when a quantum computer performs a mathematical calculation faster than the most powerful supercomputer. 2) Today's "classic computers" process a stream of electrical or optical pulses that represent information as 1s or 0s. Quantum computers use qubits, which are subatomic particles such as electrons or photons to represent and process information in new ways.
OUR TAKE
Google’s announcement highlights the positive momentum for bringing quantum computing "out of the lab" and into the realm of practical/useful applications (although some industry players, such as IBM, debate its merits).
The competitive stakes in quantum computing are significant and large technology players (Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM Alibaba, etc.), venture capital-backed start-ups, government agencies and academic institutions are exploring and investing in its varied opportunities.
The power of quantum computers should 1) drive innovative new applications, 2) disrupt some encryption technologies used in areas such as privacy protection and crypto-currency architectures and 3) require the development of new software development skills, storage devices, processing approaches and more.
Commercialization may take many years, but current quantum computing efforts are already changing how we think about information technology – this is very exciting stuff!