Is Google’s Willow really a ‘wow’ moment for quantum computers?

“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," Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in an X post on 9 December. Unlike conventional computers that use binary digits, quantum computers use ‘qubits’ and are therefore that much more powerful. According to a paper by Google Quantum AI and Collaborators in the journal Nature on 9 December, titled ‘Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold,’ errors can be driven down while increasing the number of qubits, achieving an exponential reduction in the error rate. Google asserted in 2019 that its Sycamore quantum chip, which had 53 qubits, had solved a problem in 200 seconds that would have taken 10,000 years for a conventional computer to finish. Google expects quantum computers to solve problems in AI, health and battery technology that are beyond the capacity of current devices, even if its Willow chip doesn’t have commercial applications right now.