Google: More Quantum Claims; Some Are Incomprehensible Like Multiple Universes
December 16, 2024
This blog post is the work of an authentic dinobaby. No smart software was used.
Beleaguered Google is going all out to win a PR war against the outfits using its Transformer technology. Google should have been the de facto winner of the smart software wars. I think the president of Microsoft articulated a similar sentiment. That hurts, particularly when it comes from a person familiar with the mores and culinary delights of Mughlai cuisine. “Should have, would have, could have” — very painful to one’s ego.
I read an PR confection which spot lit this Google need to be the “best” in the fast moving AI world. I envision Google’s leadership getting hit in the back of the head by a grandmother. My grandmother did this to me when I visited her on my way home from high school. She was frail but would creep up behind me and whack me if I did not get A’s on my report card. Well, Google, let me tell you I have the memory, but the familial whack did not help me one whit.
“Willow: Google Reveals New Quantum Chip Offering Incomprehensibly Fast Processing” is a variant of the quantum supremacy claim issued a couple of years ago. In terms of technical fluff, Google is now matching the wackiness of Intel’s revolutionary Horse-something quantum innovation. But “incomprehensibly”? Come on, BetaNews.
The PR approved write up reports:
Google says that its quantum chip took less than five minutes to perform tasks that would take even the fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. Providing some sense of perspective, Google points out that this is “a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe”.
Well, what do you think about that. Google is edging toward infinity, the contemplation of which drove a dude named Cantor nuts. What is the motivation for an online advertising company being sued in numerous countries for a range of alleged business behaviors to need praise for its AI achievements. The firm’s Transformer technology IS the smart software innovation.
Google re-organized in smart software division, marginalizing some heavy Google hitters. It drove out Googlers who were asking questions about baked in algorithmic bias. It cut off discussion of the synthetic data activity. It shifted the AI research to London, a convenient 11 hours away by jet and a convenient eight time zones away from San Francisco.
The write up trots out the really fast computing trope for quantum computing:
In terms of performance, there is nothing to match Willow. The “classically hardest benchmark that can be done on a quantum computer today” was demolished in a matter of minutes. This same task would take one of the fastest supercomputer available an astonishing 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to work through.
Scientific notation exists for a reason. Please, pass the message to Google PR, please.
Okay, another “we are better than anyone else at quantum computing.” By extension, Google is better than anyone else at smart software and probably lots of other things mere comprehensible seeking people claim to do.
And do you think there are multiple universes? Ah, you said, “No.” Google’s smart quantum stuff reports that you are wrong.
Let ‘s think about why Google has an increasing need to be held by a virtual grandmother and not whacked on the head:
- Google is simply unable to address actual problems. From the wild and crazy moon shots to the weirdness of its quantum supremacy thing, the company is claiming advances in fields essentially disconnected from the real world.
- Google believes that the halo effect of being so darned competent in quantum stuff will enhance the excellence of its other products and services.
- Google management has zero clue how to address [a] challengers to its search monopoly, [b] the negative blowback from its unending legal hassles, and [c] the feeling that it has been wronged. By golly, Google IS the leader in AI just as Google is the leader in quantum computing.
Sorry, Google, granny is going to hit you on the back of the head. Scrunch down. You know she’s there, demanding excellence which you know you cannot deliver. For a more “positive” view of Google’s PR machinations couched navigate to “The Google Willow Thing.”
There must be a quantum pony in the multi-universe stable, right?
Stephen E Arnold, December 16, 2024
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