Google has a lot of computers. By many accounts, it has more computers than any other company in the world. Yet even with so much horsepower at their disposal, Google's researchers keep running into barriers when trying to solve certain complex problems, particularly those tied to artificial intelligence. Google, in effect, has been stumped.
"We have already encountered problems we would like to solve that are unfeasible with conventional computers," John Giannandrea, a vice president for engineering at Google, said during a new conference on Tuesday. "We want to understand the future that may lie ahead of us in nonconventional computing."
One type of machine Google has increasingly turned to for help is called a quantum computer. These systems tap into the seemingly magical properties of quantum mechanics, the field of science that deals with how atoms and other tiny particles work. They can be used to solve problems that traditional computers simply can't handle.