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Microsoft

Microsoft Quantum Computing Claim Still Lacks Evidence 8

Nature: A Microsoft researcher [this week] presented results behind the company's controversial claim last month to have created the first 'topological' qubits -- a long-sought goal of quantum computing. In front of a packed room at a meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), Chetan Nayak, a theoretical physicist leading Microsoft's quantum computing effort in Redmond, Washington, explained how the company is developing topological qubits, which would be the building blocks for a noise-resistant quantum computer.

Physicists in the audience told Nature's news team they are still unsure whether Microsoft really has made the first topological qubits, however. "It's a hard problem," says Ali Yazdani, an experimental physicist at Princeton University in New Jersey. To anyone trying to make topological qubits, he says, "good luck."
When Nayak displayed measurement data during his presentation, he acknowledged that a characteristic signal was difficult to see due to electrical noise, prompting Cornell University theorist Eun-Ah Kim to question its robustness. Microsoft says additional details will be available in a forthcoming paper on the arXiv preprint server.

Further reading:
Scientists Question Microsoft's Quantum Computing Claims;
Microsoft Quantum Computing 'Breakthrough' Faces Fresh Challenge
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Microsoft Quantum Computing Claim Still Lacks Evidence

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  • by joshuark ( 6549270 ) on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @11:12AM (#65244933)

    Evidence...sh-medvince. Statistics can prove anything, 40% of people know this to quote Homer Simpson. The 60% that don't believe are woke.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    JoshK.

  • Microsoft has long been addicted to the idea that if the marketing department says it, then that is reality. The problem is, when you go spouting off about things you may not actually understand, let alone have a grip on, someone with actual knowledge may ask for more than just a shiny pamphlet about your greatness. As well as bluster and bullshit works on the American Political Stage, when it comes to claimed progress in scientific endeavors, there are still some folks involved in science that require fact

  • by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @11:27AM (#65244961) Homepage Journal

    What is important is how do the revenue projections look?
    And while the stock tumbled just before close on Monday, it's crawling back up today. Which proves that the market consensus is that Microsoft's quantum computing is a growth industry.

    • What is important is how do the revenue projections look?
      And while the stock tumbled just before close on Monday, it's crawling back up today. Which proves that the market consensus is that Microsoft's quantum computing is a growth industry.

      Pretty much everything in the stock market tumbled yesterday. And pretty much everything is crawling back up today.

      Whatever is driving Microsoft's stock price right now, it's not the prospect of topological qubits.

  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @11:47AM (#65245009)

    ... if you examine it closely. If you take marketing's word for what's inside the box, the cat might still be alive.

    • ... if you examine it closely. If you take marketing's word for what's inside the box, the cat might still be alive.

      The cat was a zombie all along.

  • by RUs1729 ( 10049396 ) on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @01:02PM (#65245213)
    To paraphrase captain Willard, the BS piles up so fast in the quantum computing world that you would need wings to stay above it.

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