Google's Willow Quantum Chip Impresses Elon Musk, Chat With Sundar Pichai Goes Viral

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Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai. Pic/Google on X

The conversation between Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai on Alphabet Inc.'s Willow quantum chip has taken social media by storm on the chance that the partnership for a quantum cluster in space via the new "breakthrough chip" will "probably happen."

Google's new "state-of-the-art quantum computing chip"—Willow—made a breakthrough that can reduce errors exponentially if scaled up using more qubits, cracking a 30-year challenge in the field, Sundar Pichai said in a post on X.

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"In benchmark tests, Willow solved a standard computation in <5 mins that would take a leading supercomputer over 10^25 years, far beyond the age of the universe(!)."

Taking interest in the new breakthrough, SpaceX CEO Musk replied, "Wow", after with Pichai suggested, "We should do a quantum cluster in space with Starship one day."

Musk replied: “That will probably happen,” and discussed a cosmic philosophy, referencing Kardashev scale. "Any self-respecting civilization should at least reach Kardashev Type II. In my opinion, we are currently only at <5% of Type I. To get to ~30%, we would need to place solar panels in all desert or highly arid regions."

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