What is a quantum computer good for? Absolutely nothing — yet

To this day, we have yet to see a quantum computer conclusively perform a single useful task. Existing machines are simply too small and error-ridden to solve commercially relevant problems. That hasn’t stopped Donald Trump’s science adviser from promising a “ quantum computer powerful enough for scientific discovery by 2028 ” and Trump from issuing a new executive order to speed up the US quantum computing industry in its competition with China, both on June 22nd. Companies drive the hype, too. In June, Microsoft announced a new quantum computing chip named Majorana 2. It claimed the chip was a hardware advancement that accelerates its timeline to a “scalable, practical quantum computer” by 2029. But independent experts swiftly criticized the announcement . “This is complete codswallop,” Henry Legg, a physicist from the University of St. Andrews and a longtime Microsoft critic, tells The Verge . Legg just published a paper in Nature on June 24th criticizing Microsoft’s quantum claims from a year ago — peer review takes a long time — and pointing to what he sees as major discrepancies between Microsoft’s papers and press releases. Nature included Microsoft’s rebuttal. As the arguments continue to roil, the arc of quantum computing’s progress can seem like a mess, alternating between hyped-up announcements from companies, subsequent smackdowns from academic researchers, more fights, and, now, overconfident goals set by heads of state. …