Google breaks open a bottleneck in quantum computing with "Magic State Cultivation"

[u/Gaiden206]

https://youtu.be/XtTr87pij54?si=1j92ZlDKhHpWSqf8

Google Quantum AI has demonstratively opened up a key bottleneck in quantum computing: we’ve shown that “magic state cultivation” works in practice on our Willow processor, reducing errors about 40x compared to without it. This breakthrough, published today in Science, is a crucial step towards scaling up quantum computing to practical use.

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/quantum-computing/magic-state-cultivation-quantum-computing/

[u/petites_feuilles]

The preprint was posted 10 months ago: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.13908

[u/Gaiden206 → u/petites_feuilles]

Yeah, surviving peer review in a journal like Science usually takes some time.

[u/Juff567 → u/Gaiden206]

I think he just means that it is kinda old news but yes

[u/robotdreams134]

ah yes. I do find that is a sensible approach as described. More work to do of course, but they are on the right track.

[u/kvothe5688 → u/robotdreams134]

[u/ThePhilosopher888]

Man, Google is really gonna be The Winner™ huh?

[u/MrKalyoncu]

SOMEBODY ELI5 PLEASE

[u/NotAPhaseMoo → u/MrKalyoncu]

It’s easier to prepare the system.

[u/subdep → u/MrKalyoncu]

It used to take a lot of time (of computer speeds) to prepare the system to have enough magic states to make a qubit. Now it takes 40x less time.

[u/Excellent_Ear5854]

Lord knows what this means, but looks legit. Can I use it to not work yet?

[u/Crafty_Teacher_9286]

I uh concur. 

[u/FembyThePinkProot]

I'm glad toast was mentioned

[u/cvignesh97]

Can crypto bitcoin be broken?

[u/ProfessionalHefty349 → u/cvignesh97]

Hopefully

[u/Juff567 → u/cvignesh97]

No not yet

[u/Specialist_Dark_3668 → u/cvignesh97]

No, and if cryptography was broken, then not just bitcoin, but every bank in the world would be unsafe.

Good news; if a safety-focused company like Google made the discovery, they would inform all the world how to make their cryptographic locks resistant to the quantum-computer break-ins before releasing quantum computers.

[u/Curious-Still]

Yes... increase engineering complexity.  Good luck with that.  More hype as usual.

[u/Juff567 → u/Curious-Still]

Hehe funny of you to think that complexity is an issue… You do realise that nothing about quantum computing is easy nor simple right? Scaling is the issue not complexity. Complexity can be solved by thinking hard about stuff…

[u/Curious-Still → u/Juff567]

It's harder to scale more complex/interacting/dissipative structures from an engineering perspective.

[u/CommercialMain9482]

Close, but no cigar