Google says it’s made a quantum computing breakthrough that reduces errors

Google researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in quantum error correction, one that could pave the way for quantum computers that finally live up to the technology’s promise. In this edition of What’s Next in Tech, find out what this breakthrough means for the future of quantum computing.

Learn something new every day this year when you unlock unlimited news, expert analysis, and innovative insights. Students save 50% and receive a free gift when you lock in a subscription today.

Google’s surface code technique allows its quantum bits to faithfully store and manipulate data for longer, which could pave the way for useful quantum computers.

Proponents of quantum computers say the machines will be able to benefit scientific discovery in fields ranging from particle physics to drug and materials design—if only their builders can make the hardware behave as intended.?

One major challenge has been that quantum computers can store or manipulate information incorrectly, preventing them from executing algorithms that are long enough to be useful. New research from Google Quantum AI and its academic collaborators demonstrates that they can actually add components to reduce these errors. Previously, because of limitations in engineering, adding more components to the quantum computer tended to introduce more errors. Ultimately, the work bolsters the idea that error correction is a viable strategy toward building a useful quantum computer.?

Quantum computers encode data using objects that behave according to the principles of quantum mechanics. In particular, they store information not only as 1s and 0s, as a conventional computer does, but also in “superpositions” of 1 and 0. Storing information in the form of these superpositions and manipulating their value using quantum interactions such as entanglement (a way for particles to be connected even over long distances) allows for entirely new types of algorithms.

In practice, however, developers of quantum computers have found that errors quickly creep in because the components are so sensitive. These errors accumulate over time, which means that the quantum computer cannot deliver accurate answers for long algorithms without error correction. Read the story to find out more about how Google’s team is working to solve this problem, and what a solution would mean for the future of quantum computing.

Big Ideas. Big Decisions. Big Impact. EmTech MIT takes place September 30 through October 1, 2024. Register now to save 20%.

Get ahead with these relates stories:

1. Quantum computing is taking on its biggest challenge: noise — For a while researchers thought they’d have to make do with noisy, error-prone systems, at least in the near term. That’s starting to change.
2. PsiQuantum plans to build the biggest quantum computing facility in the US — The company wants to build a computer containing up to 1 million qubits on a Chicago campus.
3. Digital twins are helping scientists run the world’s most complex experiments — Engineers use the high-fidelity models to monitor operations, plan fixes, and troubleshoot problems.

Image: Stephanie Arnett / MIT Technology Review | Getty, Wikimedia Commons