A quantum computing future is unlikely, due to random hardware errors
Google announced this fall to much fanfare that it had demonstrated “quantum supremacy” – that is, it performed a specific quantum computation far faster than the best classical computers could achieve. IBM promptly critiqued the claim, saying that its own classical supercomputer could perform the computation at nearly the same speed with far greater fidelity and, therefore, the Google announcement should be taken “with a large dose of skepticism.”
Artist’s rendition of the Google processor.
Forest Stearns, Google AI Quantum Artist in Residence, CC BY-ND
This wasn’t the first time someone cast doubt on q...