Bytes & snarls: Google claims it has achieved quantum supremacy, but IBM disagrees

A war of words has erupted between Google and IBM over what can be termed as quantum supremacy and if Google has really achieved that.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, on Wednesday, announced that the company has achieved “a distinct milestone in our effort to harness the principles of quantum mechanics to solve computational problems.”

IBM, however, was quick to respond, calling the achievement a hoax, saying what Google claims to have achieved using a quantum computer can be done using a supercomputer in just 2.5 days. Google, in its claim, said its quantum computer was able to perform a task in 200 seconds that would’ve taken today’s fastest super computers thousands of years.