Google has taken a decisive step towards practical quantum computers. A research team from Google Quantum AI has reported the first “verifiable quantum advantage” —in other words, a measurable computing advantage over conventional supercomputers that can be reproduced by other systems.

At the center of it all is a new algorithm called “Quantum Echoes,” which ran on Google’s new “Willow” quantum processor that was unveiled in December 2024. The system performed a simulation of quantum dynamics in just two hours, a task that would have taken the “Frontier” supercomputer around 3.2 years. That’s a 13,000-fold jump, according to a report published in Nature .

A bigger leap forward than last time

Google previously announced “quantum supremacy” in 2019, but was criticized at the time

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