Google claims quantum computing milestone — but the tech can’t solve real-world problems yet
A woman bikes by a giant Google logo at Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on Aug 13, 2024 where the “Made by Google” media event was held today.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
Google has unveiled a new chip that it says marks a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing, an area seen as the next frontier for many tech companies.
However, while Google’s achievements have been noted for advancing the field, experts say that quantum computing still has no real-world uses — yet.
“We need a ChatGPT moment for quantum,” Francesco Ricciuti, associate at venture capital firm Runa Capital, told CNBC Tuesday, referencing OpenAI’s chatbot that has been credited with driving the boom in artificial intelligence. “This is probably not that.”
What has Google claimed?
Proponents of quantum computing claim it will be able to solve problems that current computers can’t.
In classical computing, information is stored in bits. Each bit is either a one or zero. Quantum computing uses quantum bits or qubits which can be zero, one or something in between.
The theory is that quantum computers will be able to process much larger volumes of data, leading to potential breakthroughs in areas like medicine, science and finance.
Google on Monday announced Willow, its latest quantum chip.
“Typically the more qubits you use, the more errors will occur, and the system becomes classical,” Hartmut Neven, founder of Google Quantum AI, wrote in a blog post.
Willow can reduce errors “exponentially” as the number of qubits is scaled up, the U.S. tech giant said, which “cracks a key challenge in quantum error correction that the field has pursued for almost 30 years.”
Google measured Willow’s performance using the so-called random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark, which presents a computational task that’s difficult for classical computers to solve.
Willow performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years — or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years — Google said.
“This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe,” Neven said.
Has Google truly made a quantum breakthrough?
Google’s Willow chip has demonstrated a “new milestone in how quantum computers can deal with errors that happen during their operation,” according to Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex.
“Their technique becomes more effective in reducing errors the more extra qubits are being used to correct for these errors. This is a very important milestone for quantum computers.”
But despite optimism that quantum computing could one day change the world — or at least computers’ role in it — experts in the field have suggested that Google’s quantum computing breakthrough is still lacking in real-world uses.
Runa Capital’s Ricciuti said that Google’s claims of success are “based on tasks and benchmarks that are not really useful for practical cases.”
“They are trying to define a really high problem for normal computers that they can solve with quantum computers. It is amazing they can do that, but it doesn’t really mean it is useful,” Ricciuti added.
Hensinger said Willow “is still well too small to do useful calculations” and that quantum computers will require “millions of qubits” to solve really important industry problems. Willow has 105 qubits.
Meanwhile, Google’s chip is based on superconducting qubits, a technology that requires intense cooling, which could be a limiting factor in scaling up.
“It may be fundamentally hard to build quantum computers with such large number of qubits using superconducting qubits as cooling so many qubits to the required temperature – close to absolute zero – would be hard or impossible,” Hensinger said.
Still both Hensinger and Ricciuti agree the developments by Google add to the excitement around quantum computing and continued development in the space.
“This result increases confidence further that humanity will be able to build practical quantum computers enabling some of the high impactful applications quantum computers are known for,” Hensinger said.
An electric air taxi by Joby Aviation flies near the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 12, 2023.
Roselle Chen | Reuters
Air taxi maker Joby Aviation in a new lawsuit accused competitor Archer Aviation of using stolen information by a former employee to “one-up” a partnership deal with a real estate developer.
“This is corporate espionage, planned and premeditated,” Joby said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in a California Superior Court in Santa Cruz, where the company is based.
Archer and Joby did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The lawsuit alleges that former U.S. state and local policy lead, George Kivork, downloaded dozens of files and sent some content to his personal email two days before he resigned in July to take a job at Archer, which had recruited him.
By August, Joby said a partner that worked with Kivork said it had been approached by Archer with a “more lucrative deal.” Joby alleges that the eVTOL rival’s understanding of “highly confidential” details helped it leverage negotiations.
Joby also said the developer attempted to terminate the agreement, citing a breach of confidentiality.
Kivork refused to return the files when Joby approached him after conducting an investigation, according to the suit. The company also said Archer denied wrongdoing, and would not disclose how it learned about the terms of the agreement or provide results from an internal investigation it allegedly undertook.
The lawsuit comes during a busy period for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology as companies race to gain Federal Aviation Administration certification to start flying commercially. ‘
The sector has also benefitted from President Donald Trump‘s newly minted eVTOL pilot program.
Joby argued in the complaint that it’s “imperative” to protect Joby’s work “from this type of espionage” to promote the sector’s success and ensure fair competition.
Last week, Joby said it completed its first test flight for a hybrid aircraft it’s working on with defense contractor L3Harris. This month, Amazon-backed Beta Technologies, another electric flight company, also went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
Joby shares have more than doubled over the last year, while Archer is up about 68%.
In August 2023, Archer settled a previous legal dispute with Boeing-owned Wisk Aero over the alleged theft of trade secrets. As part of the deal, Archer agreed to use Wisk as its autonomous tech partner.
A hearing is scheduled for March 20, 2026.
Joby and Archer year-to-date stock chart.
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