From the potential implications for cybersecurity to the impressive science behind the quantum chip, here’s what experts think about the latest quantum computing news from Google.
Dr. Muhammed Esgin
Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University
The recent announcement of Willow, Google’s new quantum computing chip, is good news for science and the development of large-scale quantum computers that may have broad benefits in the future. It is also another reminder of the quantum threat that is rapidly approaching cybersecurity mechanisms.
It is well known in the research community that large-scale quantum computers can render current traditional encryption and cybersecurity mechanisms useless. These mechanisms are embedded in every corner of our digitalized world, from social media to critical infrastructure security. The good news for now is that not even Google’s Willow quantum computer is powerful enough to threaten today’s traditional cybersecurity protections… yet.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has finalized post-quantum encryption and digital signature algorithms, which will replace traditional encryption standards in the coming years. The transition to quantum-resistant cybersecurity is a complex process that will take years. Efforts such as awareness campaigns and professional training, through events such as our recent AusQRC 2024, are crucial to safeguarding our digital systems.
Monash University’s Indo-Pacific Post-Quantum Cryptography Program is an example of how we train IT professionals in several Indo-Pacific countries on how to identify vulnerable quantum systems and develop a transition plan to move to alternatives. quantum resistant.
Our research into quantum security technologies is at the forefront of developing the foundations of the cryptographic tools needed to protect our digital systems. However, the number of experts is limited in Australia and more investment in research into safe quantum technologies is needed.
Karl Holmqvist
Founder and CEO of Lastwall
Google’s new processor, Willow, represents another step towards a quantum computing future. The ability to go “below threshold,” where scaling up and adding qubits reduces errors exponentially, is a notable advance.
Over the past 24 months, we have seen important milestones and advances in a variety of architectural approaches to building scalable quantum computers that are fault-tolerant.
It seems to me that we are much closer to a cryptographically relevant quantum computer than many people realize, and the pace of development is accelerating. However, I understand the skeptics who think that we may not be as close as it seems or that we may never build the ability to break current asymmetric cryptographic systems.
So my question to everyone is this: given that we will implement quantum resilient solutions too soon or too late, which scenario carries more risk?
Would you rather understand the implications of post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) implementations, test them in your environments, and be prepared to deploy them quickly when necessary, or risk losing your secrets?
Bottom line: Now is the time to understand, test, and implement PQC capabilities. Works. Get moving.
Scott Aaronson
Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin
Yes, this is great. Yes, it is a real milestone for the field. To be clear: For anyone who’s been following experimental quantum computing for the past five years (say, since Google’s original quantum supremacy milestone in 2019), there’s no particular surprise here. Since 2019, Google has roughly doubled the number of qubits on its chip and, more importantly, increased the coherence time of the qubits by a factor of five.
Meanwhile, the fidelity of its two-qubit gate is now about 99.7 percent (for controlled Z gates) or 99.85 percent (for “iswap” gates), up from ~99. 5 percent in 2019. Then they made the most impressive demonstrations that As expected, this will be possible with more and better qubits. And yet, even if the progress broadly matches what most of us expected, it’s still immensely rewarding to see it all actually work. Congratulations to all members of the Google team for a well-deserved success.
Scientifically, the main result is that as they increase the size of their code surface, from 3×3 to 5×5 and 7×7, Google finds that their encoded logical qubit stays alive longer rather than shorter. . So this is a very important threshold that has already been crossed.
As Dave Bacon told me, “whirlpools are forming now,” or, to change the metaphor, after 30 years we are finally tickling the tail of the dragon of quantum fault tolerance, the dragon that (once fully awakened) will allow that logical qubits are conserved and actuated for basically arbitrary periods of time, enabling scalable quantum computing.
