The Biggest Scientific Discoveries Of 2023

Next-generation computer processors are one thing, but quantum computers are different horses altogether. The technology is just beginning to be ready for prime time; IBM introduced its quantum computing model to the cloud in 2016, and released a unit in 2019 — the IBM Q System One — that is available to the consumer, albeit at an eye-watering price. 

In simplest terms, quantum devices use “qubits,” the quantum equivalent of a digital bit, to process data. Qubits are bits made from a quantum mechanical system, like an electron — and rather than being locked into either one state or another, like a classical bit, a qubit can exist in both, or neither, or be ‘entangled” with other qubits. In short, their processing power is extremely robust — and while most existing quantum computers are in the neighborhood of 20 to 50 qubits, a company called Atom Computing has designed one that is orders of magnitude greater.

In October 2023, the company announced it had achieved a system with a record-shattering 1,180 qubits — just a touch better than their previous system, which came online in 2021 and offered only 100. Today, quantum computing is not exactly feasible for practical applications due to its error rates — but as the number of qubits increases, so does the potential for error correction, and in announcing their achievement, Atom founder Ben Bloom explained to Ars Technica that he envisions “hundreds of thousands to millions of qubits in a single system” — a level of scalability which now actually seems within reach, and which could have profound implications for the future of cryptography, AI, medical research, and much more.