Zoe Berg

In December, Google announced the completion of its latest quantum processor, the Willow chip. 

This superconducting chip corrects quantum errors better as the processor gets larger, a task that has taken decades to develop. This announcement drew measured praise from Yale scientists who helped lay the foundations for the technology.

“The Google Willow chip represents further steady progress,” Steven Girvin, Sterling professor of physics at Yale, wrote to the News. “There was a huge amount of hype around this announcement even though their error correction gain was about the same as achieved much more simply and efficiently in an experiment at Yale a couple of years ago.”

Girvin added that while the demonstration is an “important milestone,” the field still has “a long way to go” before quantum computers can be practically useful.

Unlike classical computers, quantum computers rely on quantum bits — qubits for short — which can simultaneously represent multiple values through a phenomenon called superposition. This property allows quantum computers to solve certain problems much faster than traditional computers, but it also makes them highly error-prone.

“To build a useful quantum computer, you need to grow at a rate at which error can be suppressed,” Pranet Sharma ’26, the co-president of the Yale Undergraduate Quantum Computing group, said. “So Google invented this really good error correction algorithm based on a bunch of theoretical work.”

The Willow chip uses a technique called “surface code error correction,” which was developed in part at Yale. In this method, multiple physical qubits encode a single, more reliable logical qubit. 

Sharma, who also researches quantum computing at Yale, explained that Google’s invention marks the first time that an algorithm capable of scaling with error suppression has been demonstrated successfully on hardware.

“So this was a huge deal because it was experimental verification that we can build usable quantum computers,” Sharma said. “A lot of people thought that quantum computers were in the nuclear fusion realm, or maybe spoken of in the same rent as nuclear fusion, where it’ll be 10 years away all the time. But this was a demonstration that this is not the case with quantum computing.”

Without error correction holding quantum computers back, companies would be able to scale up processors exponentially faster. This innovation would be able to solve many potential problems.

But alongside scientific advances comes geopolitical tension.

“There is an international race to develop quantum technologies,” Girvin wrote. “China is investing very heavily in quantum technologies and has some impressive results … There is legitimate concern by the federal government about the economic and security risks associated with not being competitive in this race and with industrial espionage.”

Some students believe that free trade between countries can allow the U.S. to innovate the fastest to reach the maximum potential of quantum computing technology.

However, students have also become concerned about the security risks that China’s development of quantum computers can pose.

“I do think that it’s best if we innovate independently,” Mohamed Diallo ’26, a global affairs and history student, told the News. “Especially given the fact that this administration and maybe a lot more of the succeeding administrations seem to have a lot of distrust for the Chinese regime.”

Computation is not the only advantage that quantum technologies have been promising. 

Sharma pointed out that quantum sensors could allow GPS-free navigation and that quantum networks could create ultra-secure communications. However, quantum computing comes at a heavy risk as well.

“Quantum computers are poised to break public key encryption by the 2030s, so people need to move away from those encryption codes,” Sharma said. “People need to be wary of ‘harvest now, decode later’ attack, where people are taking information right now. When quantum hardware catches up, then the algorithm will be run on all that data, and the sensitive information will be revealed.”

There are currently several examples of sensitive data being routed to countries such as China or Russia, with the fear that this could be the beginning of such a ‘harvest now, decode later’ attack.

Still, researchers caution against panic or overpromising.

“I understand that a certain amount of enthusiasm and optimism is essential when creating a new field,” Girvin wrote to the News. “However, I do feel there is too much hype in the field. The risk is that Congress will fall for the hype and lose patience when reality doesn’t keep pace.”

Girvin emphasized the importance of long-term, steady investment in basic research and workforce development. 

He praised recent government efforts to coordinate funding across agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense through an “all-of-government approach”.

“This seems very sensible to me,” Girvin wrote. “I hope it continues and doesn’t get derailed by political considerations.”

Political considerations may get in the way of American quantum development. As the National Science Foundation continues to lose funding, the United States may lose its ability to stay ahead in the race.

As the U.S. and China jockey for quantum leadership, Yale researchers hope that universities will continue to play a central role in defining the field’s future, not just building technology, but training the people who will use it.

“I hope that Congress and the public understand that it is research universities that carry out the fundamental research that creates and de-risks technology pathways for startups and industries,” Girvin concluded. “We must train a quantum workforce that can build the innovation ecosystem.”

The Yale Quantum Institute is located at 17 Hillhouse Ave.