Quantum computers might seem like a work of science fiction but they really do exist. While they're still a long way from being used for the purposes for which they're best suited, Google's quantum computing research lab has published results on its latest chip that show the future isn't as distant as you'd think.
The quantum chip in question is called Willow (via Ars Technica) and Google likes to use some rather creative copy to describe its capabilities: "Willow performed a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years — a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe."
