Google claims quantum computing breakthrough

ech giant Google announced Wednesday that it had reached a major breakthrough in quantum computing, saying that Sycamore, the company’s experimental quantum processor, completed a computation that would’ve taken a traditional supercomputer thousands of years in only minutes.

The findings were published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday, with the company asserting that it had achieved “quantum supremacy,” according to The Associated Press.

Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Trump and senior White House adviser, tweeted about the breakthrough Wednesday.

Quantum computing is the next step in information processing, although the technology itself is still developing.

Modern computing is based on endless series of zeroes and ones; quantum computing reportedly utilizes quantum bits, also known as qubits, to process zeroes and ones simultaneously.

However, Google’s self-proclaimed quantum supremacy has been disputed by industry counterparts who are also developing the technology.