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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA): Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) Posing Challenge to Google’s Tech Supremacy
3 minutes
BABA – The tech giants are going toe-to-toe over ‘quantum supremacy.’.
May 24, 2018 | 10:37am | By StockNews.com Staff
One of the things that sets tech heavyweights Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and Google apart from the pack are their willingness to continually reach for the stars on the achievement front. They are of course both doing that in a number of different ways, but Alibaba may be taking the lead in one area that could be a veritable game changer.
Wired shares some insight into Alibaba’s success on that front.
In March, Google unveiled a chip called Bristlecone intended to set a computing milestone. It could, Google said, become the first quantum computing system to perform a calculation beyond the power of any conventional computer—a marker known as quantum supremacy. The group’s leader, John Martinis, suggested it could reach supremacy this year, updating an earlier prediction that his team might do so in 2017.
But new results from Alibaba’s quantum researchers suggest Google’s published plans for Bristlecone can’t achieve quantum supremacy after all. Chips with lower error rates will be needed, they argue. In an email, Google researcher Sergio Boixo told WIRED that he welcomes such research, but there are “a number of questions” about the paper’s results. Others see them as notable. “The goalposts have moved,” says Itay Hen, a professor at the University of Southern California.
In short, quantum computing researchers from Google have been eyeing up a victory. Alibaba is essentially saying ‘not so fast.’ To be clear, quantum supremacy would be a massive achievement regardless of who gets there first, but progress that has been made thus far is not indicative of quantum computers being ready to be deployed anytime soon. Yaoyun Shi, director of Alibaba’s Quantum Lab has offered up some interesting perspective on where the battle stands at the moment.
“For device physicists to worry about when to reach supremacy is like worrying about when your baby is going to be smarter than your dog,” Shi said. “Just focus on taking good care of her and it’ll happen, even though you aren’t sure when.”
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares were trading at $197.26 per share on Thursday morning, up $0.46 (+0.23%). Year-to-date, BABA has gained 14.40%, versus a 2.38% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA): Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) Posing Challenge to Google’s Tech Supremacy
3 minutes
BABA – The tech giants are going toe-to-toe over ‘quantum supremacy.’.
May 24, 2018 | 10:37am | By StockNews.com Staff
One of the things that sets tech heavyweights Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and Google apart from the pack are their willingness to continually reach for the stars on the achievement front. They are of course both doing that in a number of different ways, but Alibaba may be taking the lead in one area that could be a veritable game changer.
Wired shares some insight into Alibaba’s success on that front.
In March, Google unveiled a chip called Bristlecone intended to set a computing milestone. It could, Google said, become the first quantum computing system to perform a calculation beyond the power of any conventional computer—a marker known as quantum supremacy. The group’s leader, John Martinis, suggested it could reach supremacy this year, updating an earlier prediction that his team might do so in 2017.
But new results from Alibaba’s quantum researchers suggest Google’s published plans for Bristlecone can’t achieve quantum supremacy after all. Chips with lower error rates will be needed, they argue. In an email, Google researcher Sergio Boixo told WIRED that he welcomes such research, but there are “a number of questions” about the paper’s results. Others see them as notable. “The goalposts have moved,” says Itay Hen, a professor at the University of Southern California.
In short, quantum computing researchers from Google have been eyeing up a victory. Alibaba is essentially saying ‘not so fast.’ To be clear, quantum supremacy would be a massive achievement regardless of who gets there first, but progress that has been made thus far is not indicative of quantum computers being ready to be deployed anytime soon. Yaoyun Shi, director of Alibaba’s Quantum Lab has offered up some interesting perspective on where the battle stands at the moment.
“For device physicists to worry about when to reach supremacy is like worrying about when your baby is going to be smarter than your dog,” Shi said. “Just focus on taking good care of her and it’ll happen, even though you aren’t sure when.”
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares were trading at $197.26 per share on Thursday morning, up $0.46 (+0.23%). Year-to-date, BABA has gained 14.40%, versus a 2.38% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
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