Google announced Tuesday that its artificial intelligence (A.I.) team has successfully proven the capability of the D-Wave 2X quantum annealer to achieve quantum computing. The tech giant revealed that the machine was able to compute some problems 100 million times faster than a classical computer that simulates quantum computing.
The D-Wave 2X, which Google jointly operates with NASA, was installed at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field last September, as HNGN previously reported. It has more than 1,000 qubits, which leads to immense computing power that is expected to improve Google's A.I. research capability.
The recent Google announcement involved an action called quantum speedup. The details, which involved the design of a problem and how the machine solved it, is published at arXiv. There are critics who argue that quantum computing has yet to demonstrate practical application. The only actual real-world relevance right now is to prove that the technology is actually achievable. Google recognized this concern but stated that it is working on addressing the issue.
"While these results are intriguing and very encouraging, there is more work ahead to turn quantum enhanced optimization into a practical technology," the company said in an official statement. "The design of next generation annealers must facilitate the embedding of problems of practical relevance."
