Google’s quantum computing lab has achieved a major breakthrough with its new chip, Willow, which completes a computing task in under five minutes—a feat that would take the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. This achievement surpasses Google’s 2019 milestone, where its quantum processor solved a mathematical problem in three minutes, compared to 10,000 years on a supercomputer.
Introducing Willow, our new state-of-the-art quantum computing chip with a breakthrough that can reduce errors exponentially as we scale up using more qubits, cracking a 30-year challenge in the field. In benchmark tests, Willow solved a standard computation in <5 mins that would…
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) December 9, 2024
Key to this advancement is Google’s progress in error reduction, a significant challenge in quantum computing. Unlike traditional computing bits, quantum computers use qubits, which can represent multiple states simultaneously. However, qubits are prone to errors due to interactions with their environment.
Google has mitigated this issue by increasing the number of qubits and implementing real-time error correction, achieving what’s known as “below threshold” performance—an essential step for scalable quantum computing. The research, published in Nature, marks significant progress since quantum error correction was first proposed in 1995.
Willow, with 105 qubits, is now described as having “best-in-class performance.” Google’s next goal is to achieve a “useful, beyond-classical” computation relevant to real-world applications, such as AI data collection, new medicine discovery, efficient battery designs, and advancements in fusion energy.
Hartmut Neven, founder of Google Quantum AI, emphasized that quantum technology could become indispensable in addressing critical challenges. Competing companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM are also advancing their quantum computing systems, pushing the field toward practical applications.
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