To push its quantum ambitions, Google itself has had to enter a kind of corporate version of superposition. The brainpower needed to keep things very, very cold is somewhat different from the kind that can come up with theories about quantum mechanics.
Google has been investing in both, employing people whose brains work like Einstein’s and people who can crack hardcore engineering problems.
The man responsible for bringing those two worlds together in entrepreneurial entanglement is Neven. Standing next to an idle chandelier inside the Goleta lab, he said the project has entered a new phase. The challenge now is as much about engineering as it is theory.
While still in the experimental phase, Google’s quantum computer has already yielded real world results, aiding physicists in theoretical research. But the real value comes when it gets much, much bigger. Large-scale quantum computers, the theory goes, will be able to calculate the incomprehensibly vast and complex math that explains the known universe.
This could allow scientists to understand and create new molecules capable of revolutionizing biology and materials science. Looming existential threats, such as climate change, will likely require a quantum computing arsenal.
The shift from pure theory to brainy elbow grease could be one reason Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said he’s expecting the effort to make an impact on the company’s bottom line. “Quantum, to me, looks like where AI was in the 2010s,” he told me in a recent interview. “My goal is, in a five-year time frame, we are commercially applying quantum to tackle some use cases.”
To keep that ambitious schedule, the Quantum AI division is leaning not only on quantum scientists, but engineers, says Megrant.
“That’s a big transition that we’ve seen. Since I started here in 2009, we’ve seen a push toward bringing a lot of engineering disciplines into this project, both on our team and across the field,” Megrant said.