Quantum computers move one step closer to mainstream

Much like their AI forebears, quantum computers are slowly making the jump from science fiction to reality.

Scientists at Oxford University recently achieved the lowest quantum computing error rate ever recorded—0.000015%, or one every 6.7 million operations—in a significant step towards making quantum computers widely useful.

What is quantum computing?

It’s the process of using quantum mechanics to perform computing tasks far too difficult for traditional machines.

• To put it simply: where traditional computers use bits, represented as 0s and 1s, quantum computers use qubits, which can be any combination of 0 and 1 at the same time. This allows a single qubit to store far more data than a single bit—and work much, much faster.
• For example, Google’s recently unveiled Willow quantum chip performed a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years.

However…A major barrier to developing commercial quantum computers is their tendency to make calculation errors due to “noise,” like temperature changes or electromagnetic radiation. Normal computing bits are extremely reliable and rarely fail, but qubits have a relatively massive error rate of ~1 in 1,000, meaning computations become messed up quickly.

How far away is widespread adoption? Short answer: it depends on who you ask. While this new quantum breakthrough will help solve some qubit error rate issues, some experts say the goal of building useful quantum computers is likely still decades years away.

But others are more bullish. These include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who initially cast doubt on whether useful quantum computers would arrive within two decades but changed his tune months later, saying the tech could be used to “solve some interesting problems in the coming years.”