This effort is likely aimed at industrial/academic entities and not "you" as in a single person. But anyway, it needs to be emphasized that the phrase "quantum computer" is today used to mean anything ranging from
-a useless machine that produces a signal indistinguishable from noise
TO
-a highly sophisticated marvel of science and engineering that performs otherwise impossible calculations
Many industrial quantum computers today fall closer to the the former category than the latter. A single person or small team with minimal funding has basically no hope of building anything meaningful.
I don't know of any other device that has such a broad range of quality represented under one name. Maybe like calling ELIZA and Opus 4.6 both "AI".
Is there a QC out there that can perform a commercially useful computation? No, not yet. And yes snake oil is abound. But the reality is not two categories, it's a spectrum. Some are more useless than others.
No, it's not a spectrum in any meaningful sense. There are scam companies (some with semi-respectable research departments attached to them) and there are research projects. Anyone selling devices with the promise that those devices will do anything useful for their customers are simply lying.
It's like fusion energy: there are legitimate companies working on the problem, and they may even succeed at some point, but anyone willing to deliver a 1MW fusion plant tomorrow is scamming you, because the technology doesn't work yet.
If you want to try quantum vibecoding, I threw up a site at https://www.haiqu.org where you can mcp with the quantum computer at TU Delft. Free, after you make an account.
Do we have an example of a real quantum computer doing some kind of a computation that is not easily accessible by the regular computer?
I keep hearing about "the promise" and "achieving quantum supremacy" (again!), but is there a real example of a quantum machine doing something useful in real life?
No, there are none; the closest we currently have are various special purpose and more or less hard-coded machines that demonstrate that scaling exists; various general-purpose machines operating on handfuls of qubits demonstrating the various gates; and various snake oil scams that may or may not have semi-respectable research divisions associated with them.
The Venn diagram of "useful" and "not possible on a classical computer" has demonstrations on both disjoint ends but is currently empty in the intersection. For now. I fully sympathize with the hype-fatigue though.
No. It's as if there's a "No computing with this shit" theorem, enforced by nature alongside "No FTL communications," "No hidden variables," "No, you can't build a transporter, not yours," and "No cloning."
Couldn't find any cost estimate, but from https://openquantumdesign.org/the-quantum-computer (scroll down to "What's Inside") I'm guessing 100's of k$ for the bill of materials (let alone keeping the thing going.)
So the "you" in "your own" has to have pretty deep pockets...for a relatively low fidelity 30 qubit device.
Most of the cost is in overpriced laser systems; if that gets solved a trapped-ion system could be reproduced for few tens of thousands of USDs. Still not a hobby weekend project, but certainly more attainable for more universities.
-a useless machine that produces a signal indistinguishable from noise TO -a highly sophisticated marvel of science and engineering that performs otherwise impossible calculations
Many industrial quantum computers today fall closer to the the former category than the latter. A single person or small team with minimal funding has basically no hope of building anything meaningful.
I don't know of any other device that has such a broad range of quality represented under one name. Maybe like calling ELIZA and Opus 4.6 both "AI".
It's like fusion energy: there are legitimate companies working on the problem, and they may even succeed at some point, but anyone willing to deliver a 1MW fusion plant tomorrow is scamming you, because the technology doesn't work yet.
I keep hearing about "the promise" and "achieving quantum supremacy" (again!), but is there a real example of a quantum machine doing something useful in real life?
So the "you" in "your own" has to have pretty deep pockets...for a relatively low fidelity 30 qubit device.