Quantum computing having a moment. But the technology is futuristic

It does not have a sensation in artificial intelligence, but quantum computing has its own moment.

Some of the most powerful institutions in the world, including Googleand Microsoftand Amazonand IBM The United States government spends millions of dollars in a race to develop and build the first practical quantitative computer.

Strain companies that focus on quantum technology attract about $ 2 billion last year, according to McKinsey and Co. ReportWhere investors accumulate in an industry that may have revenues of approximately $ 100 billion within a decade.

There is not much work today. In total, quantum computing companies made less than $ 750 million of revenues in 2024, according to the same report.

But more and more, we hear about a big penetration.

Last year, Microsoft unveil Her first slice, Google Executive Directors He said Technology may be only five years away, Amazon an offer The quantum processor that makes errors and IBM specific Her plan to build a meaningful quantum computer by 2029.

Joining them are dozens of small companies and universities that work on mathematics, software or a potential business model. Until some companies are circulated publicly, and they can see their shares rise or collapse based on the nucleus of the news.

In January, Nafidia CEO Hennish Huang Quantum computing shares have been sent When he said that 15 years were “on the early side” in looking at the time it would take before the quantum computing will be useful. At the time, he said that 20 years was a time frame “will secure a full group of us.”

Two months later, he is He walked Comments, but also expressed surprise that she moved the markets, or that there were even markets being transported.

“How can a quantum computer company in general?” Huang said in March.

Currently, there is nothing useful for quantum computers to do. They are purely to search.

But the promise is clear. If this technology succeeds, it can break certain types of numbers and do some of the tasks currently impossible for a traditional computer, or requires a lot of time when the universe will end before its completion.

To imagine a quantum computer, you should change the way you think mainly in what its account means.

The traditional computer works because there are billions of transistors on each slide. These transistors or zeros can be – or outside. In large numbers, the transistors can represent almost every number, indicate parts of the system memory, and do the account. This is how every computer works in the world today.

In a quantum computer, the Qubits system is used instead of transistors. It is more complicated than those and zeros. Whether Qubits is determined or stopped by quantum mechanics, and all Qubits “tangled”, which means that the change in one of them will affect the possibility of others.

Qubits’s work may require a great infrastructure. For example, some quantum computers should be operated at very cold temperatures, near absolute scratch.

To date, many quantum applications relate to chemistry and physics.

“The quantum computers will not be the selection account for each application, and this is good,” said Krysta Svore, Vice President of Microsoft Advanced Quantum Development. “Even if we only use quantum computers for materials and chemistry, 96 % of the world -made goods depend on chemistry and material science.”

Security researchers worry about what they call Q todayOr the day that an effective quantitative computer is created. They expect chaos when passwords and encryption begin to fail mysteriously.

The White House said in 2022: “Besides its potential benefits, quantum computing also poses great risks to the economic and national security of the United States,” the White House said in 2022. National Security Memorandum. The memorandum said that the encryption quantum computer “can endanger civil and military communications, undermine supervision and control of critical infrastructure, and defeat security protocols for most of the online financial transactions.”

There is no practical or algorithm that can be operated on a quantum computer that cannot be accomplished today on a normal digital computer based on silicone.

However, several groups say they have proven “the superiority of quantity”, indicating that they are facing a problem on a quantum computer, which would take longer with a traditional computer. All procedures were abstract.

Google was the first to announce quantitative excellence in 2019, as he described the completion of the quantitative computer as “standardThe task conducted by taking samples from the random circle is called only mainly used to test the quantum computers.

Google says that researchers gave the computer random instructions to make a complex problem under quantum mechanics as much as possible. The researchers then managed to show that the quantum computer is faster to decode the quantum problem. Last year, Google said that the new quantitative computer that expanded the gap in performance.

Regarding the applications of the future real world, most of the potentials of the quantum computers are present in the field of medicine, chemistry and materials research.

Google indicates the discovery of drugs, or finding molecules that can be useful drugs. He also says that quantum computers will be able to do the sciences needed to market fusion energy.

When Microsoft announced its first quantitative segment in February, the company highlighted the problems of chemistry and material science, such as the cause of erosion of some materials, or how to fertilize plastic.

There is also some optimism that quantum computers will be perfectly suitable for creating training data for artificial intelligence applications, especially in situations or problems that suffer from a large number of possible solutions.

Researcher in Google Maintains a web page This indexing is many prominent quantum algorithms.

The most famous Shore algorithmAnd that showed that the quantum computer will be able to find major factors for a large number of faster than currently possible on a digital computer.

When the algorithm was discovered in 1994, some anxiety of armies around the world was ignited. Many of them use an encryption method called RSA, which needs to be defined by large numbers to be difficult in order to maintain data confidentiality.

“Without effective relief, the impact of the hostile use of the quantum computer can be destructive [national security systems] And our nation, “Pentagon He said in 2021.

Microsoft has recognized the national security factor, and even quantum security has placed a race against China.

“Most of them believe that the United States still occupies a major position, we cannot exclude the possibility of a strategic surprise or that China may be already in the field of parity with the United States.” books In a blog post in April.

The government has led an attempt to transfer the encryption to the so -called post -quarter methods, which cannot be broken by a quantum computer. Companies like apple It has already started integrating post -quarter encryption In its services like IMessage.

But previous contacts still contain secrets. Other intelligence agencies and infiltrators often collect encrypted data that they can be decoded one day.

Currently, a lot of work in quantum is somewhat academic.

Most advanced devices companies today work to “correct the error”, or a variety of methods that aim to reduce the number of errors, and make them less harmful when they occur.

On current quantum computers, Qubits often fails out of 1000 times used, according to researchers in Microsoft. Microsoft He said Last week, it managed to reduce the error rate by 1,000 times thanks to a new approach.

Several improvements have been announced in correcting the error over the past year, which is one of the reasons why researchers and engineers are increasingly confident that they will be able to build a quantum computer.

The next number of processing is to increase computers.

Google’s new Willow chip contains 105 Qubits. Microsoft Majoraana chip has eight. IBM Starling plans to get 200 Qubits. The Amazon Oceelot chip has 14 Qubits. In the coming years, these numbers should go. Google and Microsoft says the quantum computer is really useful will need a million quarter.

He watches: Quantum computing reaches a turning point