SAN FRANCISCO – Few corners of the tech industry are as tantalizing or complex as quantum computing. For years its evangelists have promised machines capable of breaking the most impenetrable coded messages, unlocking the secret properties of the physical world and putting supercomputers to shame.
But Rigetti Computing, one of the most prominent and well-funded startups in the field, would just like to lower everyone’s expectations.
Right now, Rigetti’s challenge for itself is this: Can it solve one single problem with a quantum computer that a conventional machine cannot? Even if it just meant answering a question more quickly or cheaply than a supercomputer, the team of physicists and mathematicians at the startup’s office in Berkeley, California, would be overjoyed.
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