- Microsoft, Amazon and Google have recently announced prototypes of new quantum computer flea.
- Some physicists are skeptical about the fact that the field has progressed as much as companies say.
- Scientists say that the field remains dynamic and evolving, with obstacles to be overcome before it is useful.
The domain of quantum computer science has become more and more important after recent announcements of new prototypes of quantum fleas from Google, Microsoft and Amazon. However, some initiates in the industry remain skeptical about what technology has advanced insofar as companies claim it.
Amazon Web Services announced the Ocelot chip on Thursday, a prototype that the company declared represents a breakthrough in the correction and scalability of errors – two key problems that have long slowed down progress in the field.
Amazon’s announcement followed one of Microsoft on February 19 saying that he had created a new state of matter to fuel his new quantum chip Prototype, Majorana 1, in a development that would propel quantum IT forward.
Google willow chip prototype made his debut in December. The company said that Willow could carry out a standard reference calculation in less than five minutes – a task that would take the fastest supercomputer in progress 10 Septillion to finish, a delay that exceeds the age of the universe.
Technology giants claim that their respective developments are massive progress in the field of quantum computer science, which could possibly lead to major social progress such as the discovery of new drugs, the development of new chemical compounds or the rupture of our current encryption methods.
However, some computer scientists and physicists have told Business Insider that the field remains dynamic and evolving, with obstacles to be overcome before quantum computer science is useful.
“ The joke is that it is still in 25 years ”
Virginia Lorenz, professor of atomic, molecular and optical physics at the Graining College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, said that there were still many technical obstacles in terms of fully relevant quantum and commercially – meaningful, quantum computers that do something useful for the average person, rather than scientists.
“The joke is that it is still at 25,” said Lorenz, who founded the first quantum network accessible to the public, which allows scientific citizens to experiment with technology during the visit of the free Library of Urbana. “At least, if you keep the current approaches, the problems are technical, and there are many, compared to the situation being that everyone tries different ways to solve a problem.”
Quantum calculation is a rapidly evolving technology area based on information units called qubits rather than binary bits used in conventional computers. The qubits exist in several states both and require specific conditions such as small light or extremely cold environments to reproduce the results reliably and without errors, which made progress in the slow field.
Researchers who spoke to Bi Converse that the two main obstacles to advance the quantum field reside in the scalability and correction of errors. However, there is no consensus on how to approach, and even less to solve, one or the other problem.
In early February, Google told Reuters that the company planned to publish commercial quantum calculation applications within five years, despite the skepticism of certain industry initiates.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that they are confident in his approach with Willow and the company’s planned calendar for quantum commercial applications. However, they added that it is important to discern between what a company describes as a breakthrough and what the wider quantum community considers as a breakthrough, stressing the importance of the processes of peer publication of scientific journals.
Although the technology giants have made progress in the progress of errors’ reduction and scalability problems using various approaches, quantum technology experts told BI that they did not have to resolve them.
Troy Nelson, a computer scientist and the director of technology at Lastwall, a quantum resilient technology cybersecurity supplier, told Business Insider that the announcement of each company represents another construction block that the industry will use to create a functional quantum computer rather than a solution in itself.
“There are a lot of challenges to come,” said Nelson. For example, he said that what Amazon has gained in the correction of errors with his Ocelot chip “was a compromise for the complexity and sophistication of control systems and the readings of the chip”.
Rahul Mahajan, Director of technology for the transformation unit of digital companies in Nagarro, a technology engineering and advice company, told BI that the real progress of quantum technology is not only to measure or observe the behavior of qubits, on which the recent documents of technology are largely capable of solving.
“A step is to store qubits and observe, the second is the transformations,” said Mahajan. “As human beings, we evolve; in chemistry, molecules evolve; nature evolves. There are therefore simulations now to do – controlled simulations – this is the next big and important important things.”
These remaining obstacles have caused high -level skeptics like CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang suggests that we are still 20 years from “very useful” technology. Even Oskar Painter, director of Quantum Hardware at AWS, told Business Insider when he discussed the beginnings of the company’s Oclot chip that the 20 -year period is probably exact.
“I think that somewhere between 10 and 20 years old, I have good confidence that we will have practical and useful quantum computers within this period,” said Painter. “But we must also adopt a kind of humble and realistic approach to the work we have to do in the future.”
Previous research retractions
The researchers supported by Microsoft have already been wrong on quantum computer science.
Two articles published in nature by researchers financed by Microsoft in 2017 and 2018, who claimed to have created Majorana states similar to the company’s last announcement on its chip Majorana 1, were then retracted.
In Microsoft’s latest article in the recent discoveries in Majorana, a passage in his peer review file suggests that the newspaper editorial was still skeptical about the affirmations of the company.
“The editorial team wishes to emphasize that the results of this manuscript do not represent evidence of the presence of Majorana Zero modes in reported devices,” said the peer exam file. “The work is published for the introduction of a device architecture that could allow fusion experiences using future Majorana Zero modes.”
A spokesperson for Microsoft told Business Insider that the company had received general questions about its methodology since the publication of its latest Nature Journal. They said Microsoft had continued to advance his quantum approach since the first implementation of the newspaper on March 5, 2024.
“Speech and skepticism are all part of the scientific process,” said the spokesperson. “This is why we devote ourselves to the continuous open publication of our research, so that everyone can rely on what others have discovered and learned.”
The spokesperson added: “There are a lot of sciences to explain with regard to quantum computer science, and in the coming weeks and months, we are impatient to share our results as well as additional data behind science which transforms our vision of more than 20 years for quantum computer science into a tangible reality.”
A leading quantum doctor and CEO of a quantum software company told Business Insider that Microsoft’s claim to invent a new topological matter of material only represents marketing. They spoke under the guise of anonymity to prevent their skepticism from Microsoft’s announcement from causing a backlash of their own business; Bi has verified their identity.
“This is an important distinction that there is no topological quantum computer today,” said the quantum physicist.
However, the buzz around the advancement of quantum computers is a net positive for researchers, even if the announcements of the technology giants do not take place scientifically, said Lorenz, professor of physics.
“It’s a bit of a self-eating cycle because more funding means more interest, which means more capacity and more promising, do you know?” Lorenz said. “And I think that it is a bit why it is so suddenly in the public sphere and a major element of the reason why we see so many news around it – because there is still a lot of work to do to do a quantum computer which shows a definitive advantage on conventional computers and really holds some of the promises that we have heard.”
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