However, in 2024, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in China completed the task in 14 seconds<\/a> using an impressively-powerful-but-undeniably-classical supercomputer. <\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n As New Scientist<\/a> notes, proving supremacy is notoriously difficult because you need to be sure that classical algorithms<\/a> could never solve the task placed upon the quantum computer in question\u2014and it seems that scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have finally pulled it off. <\/p>\n In a study published on the preprint server arXiv<\/a>, the U.S.-based research team led by scientists at UT Austin report that they\u2019ve successfully demonstrated \u201cunconditional separation\u201d between quantum and classical computers. <\/p>\n \u201cA longstanding goal in quantum information science is to demonstrate quantum computations that cannot be feasibly reproduced on a classical computer,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cWe construct a task for which the most space-efficient classical algorithm provably requires between 62 and 382 bits of memory<\/a>, and solve it using only 12 qubits[\u2026]. This form of quantum advantage\u2014which we call quantum information supremacy\u2014represents a new benchmark in quantum computing, one that does not rely on unproven conjectures.\u201d<\/p>\n In the experiment, the quantum computer used qubits made from ions<\/a> and controlled by lasers. Instead of creating some immensely complex calculation, the researchers focused on something a bit smaller. The aim was to show that a quantum device could solve a task using significantly fewer qubits than a classical computer would use classical bits.<\/p>\n Assigning ends of the system the standard experimental nicknames of Alice and Bob, the task required Alice to create a quantum state and Bob measure that state to understand its properties. The quantum computer then optimized this procedure until Bob\u2019s output could be predicted before Alice revealed its state, reports to New Scientist state. <\/p>\n While a quantum computer required only 12 qubits to complete this task, the authors noted that a classical computer would need somewhere between 62 and 382 bits to perform the same task\u2014undeniable evidence<\/a> of quantum information supremacy. <\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike prior demonstrations of quantum advantage that rely on unproven complexity assumptions, our result is provable and permanent: no future development in classical algorithms can close this gap.\u201d the authors wrote. <\/p>\n Although this is good to know, scientists already had a sneaking suspicion that quantum computing would eventually outshine its classical counterpart due to the superposition<\/a> properties of qubits. The real work moving forward will be building fault-tolerant quantum computers with more than 1,000 qubits\u2014and, excitingly, things are progressing. <\/p>\n In a paper published this week in the journal Nature<\/a>, Harvard scientists successfully demonstrated a coherent 3,000 qubit computer with new methods of error correction.<\/p>\n
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