INTERVIEW
It took only 3 minutes and 20 seconds for the Google processor to overcome an extremely complex operation, where the most advanced computers today would have ... 10,000 years. The Californian multinational announced Wednesday in the journal Nature , have made a major advance in quantum computing by designing a "supercomputer". "It has taken 13 years to get there, it's the most significant step in the quest for quantum computing," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai on his blog.
This announcement is "a technological feat," says researcher Benjamin Huard, professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon, at the microphone of Julien Pearce, in the morning of Europe 1. "Google researchers say they have exceeded the quantum supremacy, which would be the moment when a quantum processor can calculate something that no conventional computer can calculate, "he explains.
Medications designed more effectively
It is difficult for non-scientists to imagine how this feat could be translated into our daily lives. For Benjamin Huard, the quantum computer could have a very concrete application: a better manufacture of drugs. "It is thought that this could help in the design of drugs or chemicals by predicting how to improve the interactions to make these chemicals," states the ENS researcher. In the long term, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries would therefore be more efficient. "This could possibly reduce [their] climate impact by improving the processes they use," says Benjamin Huard.
Other fields of application include artificial intelligence. "Everything called machine learning could be accelerated by quantum computers," he continues. These more efficient calculations could also help researchers in the field of weather simulations and the study of global warming.
"We are far from imagining their true application"
By then, the way is still long. Indeed, these machines, very massive, can for the moment operate only in a very cold environment, at - 278 degrees Celsius. "At this scale, quantum bits have very little energy, says the physicist.To control them, one must work with extremely low temperatures."
For Benjamin Huard, "we are far from imagining the true application of these machines that are beginning to exist". He compares the situation to the invention of computers today: "At the invention of the transistor, we were far from imagining what we would do at the moment."