What Google's Willow Actually Proved — and the Septillion-Year Number It Didn't
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Willow ran a benchmark in under five minutes that a supercomputer would need ten septillion years to match — a task its own makers call useless. Buried under that number was a genuinely historic result: quantum error correction finally crossed a threshold it had chased for thirty years. Here is how to tell the milestone from the marketing. In December 2024, Google put a number into the world that was impossible to ignore. Its new quantum chip, Willow, had run a benchmark in under five minutes…
1Key Takeaways
- Willow ran a benchmark in under five minutes that a supercomputer would need ten septillion years to match — a task its own makers call useless.
- Buried under that number was a genuinely historic result: quantum error correction finally crossed a threshold it had chased for thirty years.
- Here is how to tell the milestone from the marketing.
- In December 2024, Google put a number into the world that was impossible to ignore.
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3Why it matters
Coding AI shifts how fast software ships and how much human review each change needs. DEV — AI reports that willow ran a benchmark in under five minutes that a supercomputer would need ten septillion years to match — a task its own makers call useless.
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