“Google achieves quantum supremacy”

Google apparently has built a quantum computer that can defeat the world’s best supercomputers in a specific task. The machine reportedly performs a series of operations in 200 seconds that would take a supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. Once confirmed, this would be the first time so-called quantum supremacy has been achieved.

The news was first brought by the Financial Times, citing a scientific paper on NASA’s website. The publication has since been removed, but someone anonymously posted an apparent draft on Pastebin.

According to the paper, Google had a quantum computer based on superconducting circuits perform random operations on the 53 qubits available. Sampling the output produces a set of bit strings that, due to quantum interference, resembles a speckled intensity pattern of a scattered laser. “Classically, computing this probability distribution becomes exponentially more difficult as the number of qubits (width) and number of gate cycles (depth) grow,” the paper states.