Google's quantum computing breakthrough will change online
advertising and artificial intelligence.
The company launched Willow last week, but the advertising industry has not yet realized what this means for media buying, ad serving and
personalization.
Think of how the advertising industry greeted programmatic and it will give you some idea of the transformation represented by Google's quantum computing chip Willow and
the technology that follows -- and how this will change the industry.
Quantum computing will speed the process of media buying and ad serving, and will help to more precisely and
quickly match an audience to an ad without browser cookies.
The chip itself will eventually also reduce costs, but it has not been determined whether Google will pass on any cost savings to
advertisers.
The chip will initially improve revenue for Google's parent Alphabet, but long-term side effects of moving to this technology will support platform providers and brands.
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It will take time to see all these improvements, because one computer will not make a difference.
Since it will change the way that algorithms process data, quantum chips also will energize
search engine optimization (SEO). I am predicting it will improve complex pattern recognition in very large data sets and identify search intent much earlier in the process.
"Google’s Willow chip seems to mark a significant milestone on the long road from theory to practical applications of quantum computing, but the timeline to impact on business operations like
ad ops is still a matter for speculation," said Andrew Frank, VP Analyst at Gartner. "On the horizon, we can imagine great leaps in efficiency from quantum algorithms that can solve complex
optimization and forecasting problems that arise in advertising. For now, however, it’s mostly enterprise security teams that need to be on the alert for real-world challenges."
Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote in a blog post that this chip is “mind-boggling” in its speed -- and said it is one of the “first compelling examples of
real-time error correction on a superconducting quantum system — crucial for any useful computation, because if you can’t correct errors fast enough, they ruin your computation before
it’s done.”
Julian Kelly, director of hardware at Google Quantum AI, last week explained advancements in coherence times by a factor of 5 — from 20 microseconds in Sycamore
to 100 microseconds in Willow.
Coherence time refers to the time that a qubit — the basic unit of information in quantum computing — can maintain its state without
degradation.
Willow will change hardware performance. “A calculation that takes Willow under five minutes would take the fastest supercomputer 10 to 25 years,” he said in a video.
“That’s a 1 with 25 zeros following it.”
Google has a fabrication facility in Santa Barbara that makes these chips, which can operate under the speed and error correction goals never before achieved in quantum computing.
It typically takes one to two seconds to auction, fill,
and serve an ad, explained Nagu Gopalakrishnan, senior privacy product manager at ID5.
"If you are using a quantum computer, you would speed up the decision on which ads to
serve," Gopalakrishnan said. "The user seeing an ad could still take 1 to 2 seconds due to network latency and other elements such as page load time. In this scenario, there may be
a very small gain, but using such a quantum computer in ad decisions could improve ad matching and personalization decisions."
Gopalakrishnan said this technology also
could help serve more ads in any given time period. One user will not see a noticeable difference unless quantum computers are lined across the network from ad servers to content delivery
networks (CDNs). Google will make that happen one day.
More rapid ad matching and optimization speeds would improve media buying. Willow and quantum chips that follow could reduce the cost of
serving an ad.
"Computational costs are heavily influenced by available memory," says Google. Based on estimates, it’s “important to consider a range of scenarios, from an ideal
situation with unlimited memory to a more practical, embarrassingly parallelizable implementation on GPUs.”
The next challenge for Google will be to demonstrate a more “useful,
beyond-classical" computation on these chips more relevant to a real-world application.
“We’re optimistic that the Willow generation of chips can help us achieve this goal,”
Google said.
Google so far has achieved advancements in two separate types of experiments. It has run Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) benchmark that measures performance against classical
computers but has no known real-world applications.
It also tested “interesting simulations of quantum systems, which have led to new scientific discoveries but are still within the
reach of classical computers.”
Google’s goal is to do both in a stimulating manner — “to step into the realm of algorithms that are beyond the reach of classical
computers and that are useful for real-world, commercially relevant problems."