News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Quantum computers: amazing progress, but probably false supremacy claims. Parent comment

Re:Quantum computers: amazing progress, but probably false s... by FartyMcFarter on Sunday October 06, 2019 @05:18AM (#21170803)
> They barely have any control over what their gates do.

I don't understand this, could you explain?

My understanding is that the gates are perfectly normal quantum gates, which they use to connect qubits in a programmable way. Due to the probabilistic nature of quantum computing, running this circuit generates samples from a random distribution.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Quantum computers: amazing progress, but probably false s... by shroedingaway on Sunday October 06, 2019 @12:08PM (#21172850)
I attended a Google talk where they acknowledged difficulty in controlling their device. That was given as the motivation for running problems that consist of "random gates".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Quantum computers: amazing progress, but probably false s... by FartyMcFarter on Sunday October 06, 2019 @12:46PM (#21173121)
My understanding from reading Scott Aaronson's FAQ is that the "random" in "random gates" just means that they pick a random circuit to evaluate. But this circuit is known, just like a program can pick a random number and then print it out.

The fact that quantum computing behaves "randomly" by nature further complicates the discussion :)

[ Parent | on HN ]