All you need to know about Google's Willow

1) Google's Willow chip project started in 2012 with a vision to build a large-scale quantum computer harnessing quantum mechanics to advance scientific discovery, develop helpful applications, and tackle society's greatest challenges.

2) Google says Willow achieved exponential quantum error correction. "The more qubits we use in Willow, the more we reduce errors, and the more quantum the system becomes. We tested larger arrays of physical qubits, scaling up from a 3x3 grid to 5x5 and 7x7, cutting the error rate in half each time," says Hartmut Neven, founder and lead, Google Quantum AI.

3) This means Google achieved an exponential reduction in error rate, known as “below threshold” — driving errors down while scaling up qubits.

4) With Willow, Google achieved scientific firsts: real-time error correction on a superconducting quantum system, crucial for useful computation, and "beyond breakeven" demonstration where arrays of qubits have longer lifetimes than individual qubits.

5) Willow performed a computation in under five minutes that would take today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. "It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes," says Neven.

6) Willow's performance sets benchmarks for quantum error correction and random circuit sampling. "Such benchmarks measure overall chip performance," says Neven.

7) Willow’s next challenge is to show a "useful, beyond-classical" computation relevant to real-world applications. Google aims to step into algorithms beyond classical computing for commercially relevant problems.

8) Neven says quantum computing will transform technology, and advanced AI will benefit significantly. "Future game-changing applications won’t be feasible on classical computers; they’re waiting to be unlocked with quantum computing."

Willow

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