Google and IBM are dueling to commercialize a new generation of computing technology, quantum computing. While Google is working on a breakthrough to achieve “quantum supremacy,” IBM is dismissive of that approach, working on evolutionary development with a steady stream of commercial applications from the outset.
Gideon Lichfield goes in depth at MIT Technology Review, along with explaining the principles of quantum computing and differences between the two approaches. Based on Lichfield’s article, Google is ahead but IBM looks ready for a marathon:
Regardless of whether you agree with Google’s position or IBM’s, the next goal is clear… to build a quantum computer that can do something useful. The hope is that such machines could one day solve problems that require unfeasible amounts of brute-force computing power now, like modeling complex molecules to help discover new drugs and materials, or optimizing city traffic flows in real time to reduce congestion, or making longer-term weather predictions. (Eventually they might be capable of cracking the cryptographic codes used today to secure communications and financial transactions, though by then most of the world will probably have adopted quantum-resistant cryptography.) The trouble is that it’s nearly impossible to predict what the first useful task will be, or how big a computer will be needed to perform it. …
As for quantum supremacy itself, it will be an important moment in history, but that doesn’t mean it will be a decisive one. After all, everyone knows about the Wright brothers’ first flight, but can anybody remember what they did afterwards?
