Google scientists have created a new quantum processor that, in five minutes, cracked a problem that would have taken the world's best supercomputer 10 septillion years to solve. The breakthrough will allow quantum computers to become less error-prone the bigger they get, achieving a milestone that overcomes a decades-long obstacle.
Quantum computers are inherently "noisy," meaning that, without error-correction technologies, every one in 1,000 qubits — the fundamental building blocks of a quan computer — fails.
