It’s ok to be confused,every expert told Metro (Picture: Getty/Metro)
You’ve heard the word ‘AI’ at least two dozen times today. Whether you wanted to or not.
The technology is in our phones,our fridges and even our toilets.
But AI has an expiration date – and tech giants Google,Microsoft and IBM are already planning on the next big thing.
Quantum computing.
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it – 31% think it’s the stuff of science fiction,a recent survey by security firm Thales found.
But as experts told Metro,it’s real and it’ll be here sooner than you think.
A quantum computer is a powerful experimental computer.
They already exist,but scientists haven’t finessed them yet,partly because of the bizarre way they work.
Quantum computer chips harness the groovy power of quantum mechanics,or how the tiniest things in the universe,like atoms,act.
When these particles are cooled to -273.15°C,chillier than space,they act strangely. Randomness and uncertainty rule and things can be everywhere and nowhere all at once.
Confused? Charina Chou,director of Google Quantum AI,doesn’t blame you.
‘When I set my phone down,I know it’s going to stay in that place,’ she says.
What experimental quantum computers look like at the moment (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Qubits are fussy,so are kept inside dilution refrigerators that act as Thermos bottles (Picture: Erik Lucero/Google )
‘But when an electron goes around an atom,it’s in multiple places at once. It’s not just in place A,but place A and place B.’
This is what quantum computers exploit so they can ‘think’ very quickly.
Computers perform calculations by crunching ‘bits’ of information. Each bit is one or a zero.
The offline world isn’t made up of ones and zeroes,though,it’s quantum,and computers don’t speak its gnarly language.
So scientists invented the quantum bit,or qubit,which is one and zero. One qubit is the same as two bit… bits.
Chou says qubits can be made from all sorts of exotic materials,like light particles or metals that act otherworldly when super-cold,called superconductors. Each has pros and cons.
Microsoft even invented a new state of matter to power its chip which,when cooled,acts in ways that a solid,liquid or gas never would.
Still,quantum chips can only pack 100 qubits,when the goal is 100,000.
Zulfi Alam,corporate vice president at Microsoft,says that the pay-off will be big.
‘If I forgot the combination of my bike lock and used a classical computer to help,it would check every combination,one at a time,’ he explains.
‘A quantum computer would be able to test many combinations at once and then pick the right one.’
This little square,Microsoft’s Majorana 2,can do some serious calculations (Picture: John Brecher)
Sadly,it won’t help you stream Netflix shows faster.
Jason Soroko,a senior fellow at Sectigo,says you won’t have a quantum phone or quantum washing machine.
‘What people will actually encounter is invisible,’ he says.
‘The batteries in cars,the drugs in medicine cabinets,the fertilisers behind food and the materials in buildings will have been designed with help from quantum simulation and the user will never know it happened.’
Quantum computing could also understand cancer on a teeny-tiny molecular level,so doctors could create targeted treatments.
‘A person might feel like they’ve got a growing lump. But underneath all of that can be completely different things at the molecular scale,’ Chou adds.
The government has also backed a few quantum projects (PIcture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)
Another big draw,of course,is that quantum computing can help us understand the quantum world.
In March,IBM used one to decode the structure of a new molecule.
‘Quantum computers have the potential to illuminate parts of the universe that are currently far beyond the reach of even our most advanced classical simulations,’ Ivano Tavernelli,a quantum computing application researcher at IBM Research Zurich,says.
Scientific mysteries – like why there’s barely any of matter’s wacky twin,antimatter,or what ghostly speck neutrinos actually are – could be solved.
‘Quantum computers could help us probe parts of the universe we have never seen,’ Tavernelli adds.
A quantum chip by Google,called Willow,is being used by King’s College London to study quantum things far too hard for our ape brains.
Dr Eleanor Crane (left) is part of the team (Picture: King’s College London)
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It’s not all about curing cancer.
Quantum computers can do gazillions of calculations. In 2024,Willow completed a math problem in five minutes that would take supercomputers 10septillion years – 24 zeros,older than the universe.
These impossible codes are what governments and banks use to encrypt data,so security experts are worried quantum could crack them.
Soon. Microsoft expects to achieve a scalable quantum computer by 2029,cutting its original timeline in half.
‘I see the future of computing as hybrid,where quantum technologies work alongside AI and high-performance computing,’ adds Alam.
Chou expects the same.
‘Think to the 1940s,when we had these gigantic computers,nobody back then could have imagined your phone,’ she says.
‘Quantum will be similar to that.’
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