Why it’s too early to celebrate Google’s quantum computing ‘breakthrough’

The tech giant’s achievement with its Willow chip is impressive, but it is more of an evolution rather than a revolution.

Google on Monday announced a new chip called Willow, labelling it as a breakthrough in quantum computing. What the tech giant has achieved with the chip is no doubt impressive, but it’s more of a milestone rather than a breakthrough. 

Google made two claims in particular. One, the chip was able to complete in five minutes a problem that would take the fastest supercomputer 10 septillion years. Two, it solved the problem of error correction, which has remained an enigma for decades. There’s a reason Willow has created such a buzz. Both these claims could essentially change the way quantum …