Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
The unveiling of Google’s Willow chip left the scientific world intrigued, as its extraordinary speed sparked claims of computations borrowing from parallel universes.
Hartmut Neven, Google Quantum AI’s founder, claims Willow solved a task in five minutes that would take today’s supercomputers 10 septillion years, challenging the limits of known physics.
Neven asserts that Willow’s performance surpasses known timescales in physics, even exceeding the age of the universe, giving credence to long-standing theories of multiverse interactions.
Unlike traditional computers, Willow harnesses qubits, which exist in multiple states simultaneously, enabling unprecedented computational speeds far beyond conventional systems.
Critics question the practicality of Willow’s feat, arguing it was more a demonstration of speed than utility, casting doubt on its real-world applications despite the monumental claims.
Despite skepticism, the announcement boosted Google’s stock by five points, showing the financial world’s optimism in Willow’s potential to reshape quantum computing.
The computational task completed by Willow suggests a level of performance that defies the laws of classical computing, marking a revolutionary moment in quantum technology.
Neven’s blog post, published on Google’s website, has ignited discussions among physicists, with some intrigued by the multiverse theory and others dismissing it as speculative.
Willow’s achievement, though controversial, underscores the potential of quantum computing to solve problems previously deemed unsolvable, opening a new frontier in science.