ET Graphics: Majorana I, Willow and new frontiers of quantum computing

Recent scientific discoveries with Microsoft’s Majorana and Google’s Willow chips have accelerated the move towards real-world quantum computing applications. However, these did not happen overnight, but instead were perfected over decades of research. The groundwork for quantum computing was laid in the early 1980s when physicists Richard Feynman and David Deutsch discovered that by applying quantum mechanics laws, these computers could outperform traditional ones. Since then, research labs at IBM, Google, D-Wave, Quantinuum have birthed several new concepts. Himanshi Lohchab charts the timeline and future possibilities of sync between quantum and artificial general intelligence.