Industry Reacts to Google’s Quantum Supremacy Claim
Industry reaction to Google’s quiet claim of quantum supremacy
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ On September 20, the Financial Times reported that a Google research paper temporarily posted online said Google’s quantum computer has reached “quantum supremacy,” a threshold at which quantum computers are theorized to be capable of solving problems, which traditional computers would not (practically) be able to solve. If true, this represents a major milestone in the advancement of quantum computing.
Quantum computing has business potential, though the concept of quantum supremacy is easy to misinterpret. Jumping the shark could result in reduced interest and investment.
+ Industry reaction to the news has largely been sceptical, as expectations that Google’s advancement is either overblown, or not applicable to practical business use of quantum computers. “The experiment and the ‘supremacy’ term will be misunderstood by nearly all,” said Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, in a written statement. “Quantum computers are not ‘supreme’ against classical computers because of a laboratory experiment designed to essentially (and almost certainly exclusively) implement one very specific quantum sampling procedure with no practical applications. In fact, quantum computers will never reign ‘supreme’ over classical computers, but will rather work in concert with them, since each have their unique strengths.”
+ Intel’s reaction to the news was moderately warmer. “Google’s recent update on the achievement of quantum supremacy is a notable mile marker as we continue to advance the potential of quantum computing. Achieving a commercially viable quantum computer will require advancements across a number of pillars of the technology stack,” said Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel Labs. “We along with the industry are working to quickly advance all of those areas to realize the true potential of quantum computing. And while development is still at mile one of the marathon, we strongly believe in the potential of this technology.”
Source: TechRepublic. James Sanders, Industry reaction to Google’s quiet claim of quantum supremacy…
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