Google CEO Pichai sees 'useful' quantum computers 5-10 years away

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By Marissa Newman 

Quantum computers that are “practically useful” are 5-to-10 years away, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said, comparing the groundbreaking technology to where artificial intelligence was about a decade ago.  

“The quantum moment reminds me of where AI was in the 2010s, when we were working on Google Brain and the early progress,” Pichai, who is also CEO of Google parent Alphabet Inc., said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Wednesday. 

 

Governments, led by the US and China, and corporations are pledging billions of dollars to quantum computing research in the pursuit of the futuristic technology. Quantum computers dramatically increase the speed and capacity of data that can be processed, making it possible to model complex systems, more accurately predict the outcome of different scenarios and break current encryption systems.  

However, the technology is still mainly used for research, and there’s a debate about when it will come into its own. In January, Nvidia Corp.’s CEO Jensen Huang said that “very useful” quantum computers are likely decades away, sending quantum stocks tumbling. 

 

Pichai also cited a recent Google breakthrough in quantum chips, which allowed researchers to calculate in five minutes a problem that would take existing supercomputers “longer than our universe has been around.”

 

“The progress in quantum is palpably exciting,” he said.