Quantum Computational Supremacy

Title: Quantum Computational Supremacy Scott Aaronson Date: September 9, 2021 ABSTRACT In fall 2019, a team at Google made the first-ever claim of "quantum computational supremacy"—that is, a clear quantum speedup over a classical computer for some task—using a 53-qubit programmable superconducting chip called Sycamore. Since then, a group at USTC in China has made additional claims of quantum supremacy, using both superconducting qubits and "Boson Sampling" (a proposal by me and Alex Arkhipov from 2011) with ~70 photons in an optical network. In addition to engineering, these experiments built on a decade of research in quantum complexity theory. This talk will discuss questions like: what exactly were the contrived computational problems that were solved? How does one verify the outputs using a classical computer? And crucially, how confident can we be that the problems are really classically hard? SPEAKER Scott Aaronson Scott Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his bachelor's from Cornell University and his PhD from UC Berkeley. Before coming to UT Austin, he spent nine years as a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Aaronson's research in theoretical computer science has focused mainly on the capabilities and limits of quantum computers. His first book, Quantum Computing Since Democritus, was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press. He received the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the United States PECASE Award, and the Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics. He is the recipient of the 2020 ACM Prize in Computing and a Fellow of ACM. MODERATOR whulrey whurley is founder and CEO of Strangeworks, a quantum computing startup that makes the power of quantum computing easily accessible and available to all. He is an Eisenhower Fellow, Innovator in Residence for the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, A Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Chairman of the Quantum Computing Standards Workgroup at the IEEE, the first Ambassador to CERN and Society, a regular contributor to TechCrunch on the topic of Quantum Computing, and the co-author of Quantum Computing for Babies. Prior to starting Strangeworks he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. He came to Goldman Sachs via the acquisition of his second startup, Honest Dollar. Prior to Honest Dollar whurley founded Chaotic Moon Studios which was acquired by Accenture.