According to IBM, the first ready-to-use quantum computer is less than five years away. It believes it has found a solution for the biggest obstacle: error correction.
Jay Gambetta, VP of Quantum at IBM, stated to the Wall Street Journal that he “is more certain than ever that a fault-tolerant quantum computer will exist by the end of the decade”. IBM has drawn up a roadmap to achieve this. “We believe we have found the scientific solutions for error correction”.
Quantum computers have been announced for many years, not just by IBM, but practical applications have so far been absent. This has to do with how quantum computers work. Unlike traditional computers that use a binary structure, quantum computers rely on qubits.
Qubits can take on more values than bits, which in theory gives quantum computers much more computing power than even the most powerful traditional supercomputer. The downside is that qubits are unstable. The academic world has not yet been able to solve this problem.
Error correction
Microsoft and AWS recently announced major breakthroughs in quantum technology. The tech giants developed quantum chips that make the process of error correction more efficient and cheaper. But IBM also claims to have found a solution, namely quantum low-density parity check codes. IBM also applies traditional computers to identify and correct errors in real-time in quantum computers.
Error tolerance should lay the foundation for ‘quantum utility’: the moment when quantum computers prove their added value compared to traditional computers. IBM is already sharing its progress to get developers excited about developing code and programs for quantum computers. For IBM, the holy grail of ‘quantum supremacy’ is not necessary to deploy them in practice.
When the time comes, IBM has a machine ready. IBM’s Starling computer will be housed in a data center in New York and is set to become the first fault-tolerant quantum computer.
Woken Up
Gartner responds via the Wall Street Journal with some skepticism to IBM’s announcement. According to Gartner’s analysts, it’s still far too early to speak of a “ChatGPT” moment for quantum computers. For that to happen, IBM will first need to prove that the potential of quantum computers can be converted into “tangible business value”.
The quantum world has been completely awakened by the announcements from IBM, Microsoft, and others. Commercially deployable quantum computers no longer seem to be a ten-year plan for the first time. Security and telecom companies are fully preparing for the arrival of quantum computers with “quantum-secure” networks, while software companies are already openly dreaming of “quantum AI”.
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