A Google Sycamore quantum chip built by the company's AI division can be seen here. (Google via Wikimedia Commons)
If you have no idea what quantum computers can do, do not worry. You are in the same club as search and advertising giant Google. The company on Monday announced it is launching the 3-year, $5-million-dollar XPRIZE Quantum Applications to solve real-world challenges with the technology.
The competition is soliciting quantum computing algorithms that can potentially be used to achieve what Google is referring to as “societally beneficial goals,” like the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is in line with Google Quantum AI’s mission to build a large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer and develop useful quantum computing applications.
What is a quantum computer?
The device you are reading this on, whether it is a personal computer, a smartphone or even a VR headset, is powered by classical computing. Classical computers store information in binary “bits,” which can have two values — either 0 or 1. Quantum computers encode information in what is known as a quantum bit or a qubit.
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Quantum computers are machines that use the properties of quantum physics to store data and perform computations. This can be extremely advantageous for certain tasks where they could vastly outperform even our best supercomputers.
Classical computers, which include smartphones and laptops, encode information in binary “bits” that can either be 0s or 1s. In a quantum computer, the basic unit of memory is a quantum bit or qubit. Just like a classical computing bit, a qubit can have two distinct states and these can be used to represent either a 0 or a 1. But unlike a classical bit which can only exist in one of these states, a qubit can exist in superposition states or even be entangled with other quantum bits.
This, in theory, makes qubits much more powerful than classical bits, therefore making quantum computers much more powerful than classical computers, depending on the application.
Why did Google announce the prize?
A majority of the efforts spent in research is directed at actually building viable quantum computers. As such, most quantum algorithms are mainly studied in the context of abstract mathematical problems.
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Scientists have many reasons to be optimistic about the potential of quantum computing but they are still in the dark about the full scope of this technology and what real-world applications, especially during its early stages. Google is hoping that this prize will incentivise the quantum computing community to come up with the answer to the most pressing question — What do we do with quantum computers once they are built?
