Google announced plans to showcase commercially viable quantum computing applications within the next five years.
On the 5th, Reuters reported that Hartmut Neven, the head of Google's quantum artificial intelligence (AI) research, said in an interview, "We will see commercial applications that can only be implemented on quantum computers within five years."
The quantum computing applications that Google is researching are primarily focused on materials science, with a high potential for use in improving electric vehicle battery performance, drug development, and innovations in alternative energy technologies, Reuters noted.
In December last year, Google announced that its quantum computer, equipped with the self-developed quantum chip "Willow," performed calculations that were virtually impossible for existing supercomputers to solve in just five minutes during a performance test. According to Google, the current top-performing supercomputer, "Frontier," succeeded in solving a problem that would take 10 septillion years (10 to the power of 24 years). However, it added that this experiment involved a test utilizing a specific algorithm and has not yet reached the commercialization stage.
Unlike traditional computers that process information sequentially, quantum computers are expected to demonstrate overwhelming performance in certain fields by utilizing "qubits" to compute multiple data simultaneously.
Quantum computing technology is being recognized as a key technology that will bring innovation in various industries such as security, finance, and healthcare.
Meanwhile, the Google research team announced that they discovered a new method to improve quantum simulation, as stated in a paper published in the scientific journal "Nature." The researchers evaluated that this brings them one step closer to their commercialization goal.
However, industry outlooks on the timing of quantum computer commercialization are mixed. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, predicted, "It will take at least 20 years for practical quantum computers to emerge," while Jay Gambetta, vice president leading IBM's quantum computing institutional sector, asserted, "We could reach quantum advantage within 1 to 2 years."
Quantum advantage refers to the state in which quantum computers can solve specific problems more efficiently than conventional computers, and IBM forecasts that a practical quantum computer will emerge within 5 to 10 years.