Google claims major quantum computing breakthrough with ‘Willow’

Google is touting the development of a new quantum chip it calls “Willow” that the California online search giant said will bring consumers closer to using quantum devices whose capabilities far outdo existing technology.  

The Big Tech company said Monday that Willow, its newest superconducting processor, outperformed the best supercomputers now in operation.

“Willow performed a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion … years — a number that vastly exceeds the age of the universe,” wrote Google’s Hartmut Neven on the company’s blog. 

While Google’s previous claims about its quantum computing progress have faced skepticism, the company’s announcement demonstrates the potential commercial developments made possible by those striving to create a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer.  

Such CRQCs are sought-after and feared by governments and top tech minds alike, as the hoped-for tool is expected to smash current encryption systems that secure everything from financial transactions to top national security secrets. 

Scientists and engineers appear a long way off from creating a CRQC, if it is possible, but Google believes its Willow tool will move the company “significantly along that path towards commercially relevant applications.”

“This is the most convincing prototype for a scalable logical qubit built to date,” Mr. Neven wrote. “It’s a strong sign that useful, very large quantum computers can indeed be built. Willow brings us closer to running practical, commercially relevant algorithms that can’t be replicated on conventional computers.”

Skeptics doubting that large quantum computers will emerge anytime soon abound. National Security Agency research director Gilbert Herrera has said public estimates of CRQCs’ arrival are often far more optimistic than what he hears from the engineers and scientists deep in technical work. 

Speaking at a military communications conference last month, Mr. Herrera acknowledged the formidable task of those engaged in developing quantum tech and praised Google’s work. 

“Creating a large quantum computer is a daunting task, and it is difficult to predict when progress will be made,” Mr. Herrera said in remarks shared by NSA with The Washington Times. “I should note that during the past six months, a Google team published a paper announcing a better than break even logical qubit performing a memory operation and a Microsoft and Quantinuum team wrote a paper announcing logical gate operations between several logical qubits that were below the break-even threshold — significant progress, but below the estimates from the 2004 Roadmap.”

Technology experts know that large quantum computers will require sustained and costly investments to fund the research to build the machines. The NSA is among those funding such research that the agency acknowledged could be used to help create an “economic weapon of mass destruction.”

But it is not only government labs working on the powerful technology anymore: Google wants people to know it believes it has the infrastructure to make quantum computers a reality. 

“Willow was fabricated in our new, state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Santa Barbara — one of only a few facilities in the world built from the ground up for this purpose,” Mr. Neven wrote. “System engineering is key when designing and fabricating quantum chips: All components of a chip, such as single and two-qubit gates, qubit reset, and readout, have to be simultaneously well engineered and integrated.” 

Mr. Neven said the next challenge for Google’s quantum chips is to demonstrate “useful, beyond-classical” computation feats that have applicability to the real world.