 "Google CEO Sundar Pichai, one of the prominent Indian immigrants in the United States, gives a thumbs up as he arrives to attend the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, on February 11, 2025. (Photo: Benoit Tessier/Reuters)")
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a major milestone in quantum computing through a post on X, formerly Twitter. He revealed that Google’s Willow chip had achieved the first-ever verifiable quantum advantage. According to Pichai, the chip executed a complex algorithm 13,000 times faster than the best classical algorithm running on one of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
The post quickly drew attention from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who responded, “Congrats. Looks like quantum computing is becoming relevant.”
Pichai elaborated that the breakthrough, published in Nature, involved running a new algorithm called Quantum Echoes. This algorithm can describe interactions between atoms in a molecule using nuclear magnetic resonance, potentially aiding advances in drug discovery and materials science. Crucially, the results are verifiable, meaning they can be repeated by other quantum systems or validated through experimental methods.
Why the Willow chip breakthrough matters
This marks the first time a quantum computer has conclusively outperformed a supercomputer in a verifiable manner. Using the Willow chip, researchers ran Quantum Echoes, also known as the out-of-order time correlator (OTOC), to explore how information spreads in quantum systems such as molecules, magnets, and even black holes.
The experiment’s success establishes a key step towards real-world applications of quantum computing, positioning Google’s Willow chip at the forefront of the next phase in computing technology.
What it means?
“Imagine you’re trying to find a lost ship at the bottom of the ocean. Sonar technology might give you a blurry shape and tell you, “There’s a shipwreck down there.” But what if you could not only find the ship but also read the nameplate on its hull? That’s the kind of unprecedented precision we’ve just achieved with our Willow quantum chip,” Google explained.
It further added, “Our new technique works like a highly advanced echo. We send a carefully crafted signal into our quantum system (qubits on Willow chip), perturb one qubit, then precisely reverse the signal’s evolution to listen for the “echo” that comes back.”
“This quantum echo is special because it gets amplified by constructive interference — a phenomenon where quantum waves add up to become stronger. This makes our measurement incredibly sensitive,” the explanation read.