Does Google’s ‘mindboggling’ new chip bring quantum computers any closer?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.2 • 938 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

On Monday Google unveiled its Willow quantum computing chip. The new chip takes just five minutes to complete tasks that would take 10 septillion years for some of the world’s fastest conventional computers to complete. But despite its impressive power, it’s not clear the chip has any practical applications. So does it bring quantum computing any closer? To find out Ian Sample speaks to Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex. Because of industrial action taking place by members of the National Union of Journalists at the Guardian and Observer this week, you may notice some disruption to the availability of new episodes in your Guardian podcast feeds in the coming days. All the work on this episode was done before the strike action began. For more information please head to theguardian.com. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:07.0	Because of industrial action taking place by members of the National Union of Journalists at The Guardian and Observer this week,
0:14.0	you may notice some disruption to the availability of new episodes in your Guardian podcast feeds in the coming days.
0:24.6	All the work on this episode was done before the strike action began.
0:28.1	For more information, please head to the Guardian.com.
0:35.5	For a long time, they felt like the stuff of science fiction.
0:38.8	Computers so fast and so powerful,
0:41.6	they could give us new drugs in record time,
0:45.9	allow MRI scans to be read in atom-level detail,
0:47.9	and zip through calculations that would take today's most powerful machines
0:50.6	longer than the age of the universe.
0:54.0	My favorite quantum application is teleportation of information from one location to another
1:01.1	without physically transmitting the information.
1:04.8	Sounds like sci-fi, but it is possible.
1:09.2	Despite breakthroughs along the way,
1:11.4	quantum computers we can actually use
1:13.8	have always seemed to be just out of reach.
1:17.3	Often people ask me about quantum computing,
1:19.7	they ask me,
1:20.6	is quantum computing a bit like fusion?
1:22.8	Is it always 10 years away?
1:24.0	But recently, the drive for quantum has ramped up. Countries are pouring tens of billions
	...

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