Classical computers catch up with Google's 2019 quantum supremacy task

Why it matters

A task Google said would take a supercomputer 10,000 years was done classically in hours, showing that quantum advantage claims depend on the best classical methods available at the time.

Sources (4)

• arXiv (Pan, Chen and Zhang) Solving the sampling problem of the Sycamore quantum circuits
  Primary sourceNov 4, 2021

  “If our algorithm could be implemented with high efficiency on a modern supercomputer with ExaFLOPS performance, we estimate that ideally, the simulation would cost a few dozens of seconds, which is faster than Google's quantum hardware.”

• Physical Review Letters Solving the Sampling Problem of the Sycamore Quantum Circuits
  Primary sourceAug 22, 2022

  “Solving the Sampling Problem of the Sycamore Quantum Circuits”

• The Quantum Insider Researchers Use Classical Supercomputer to Challenge Google's Quantum Supremacy Claim
  Independent coverageAug 4, 2022

  “In a study published in the Physical Review of Letters, a research team from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by statistical physicist Pan Zhang, reported they beat Google's computer — Sycamore — at the same computational task that was examined in the 2019 study.”

• TechCrunch Google's quantum supremacy usurped by researchers using ordinary supercomputer
  Independent coverageAug 5, 2022

  “Zhang's group claims to have done it in 15 hours. And if they had access to a proper supercomputer like Summit, it might be accomplished in a handful of seconds — faster than Sycamore.”