Google has opened early access to its Willow quantum processor to researchers
Google has begun accepting applications from scientific teams that want to conduct experiments directly on the Willow quantum processor, not just in simulations.
Google has begun accepting applications from scientific teams that want to conduct experiments directly on the Willow quantum processor, not just in simulations.
According to TechSpot, the company has launched an Early Access program for a limited number of researchers. This is not about public access to the chip, but about selecting a few teams that will propose experiments specifically designed for Willow. Applications can be submitted until May 15, 2026, and Google promises to announce the results of the selection by July 1.
Google asks participants to describe not an abstract idea, but a specific experiment: what quantum circuits they want to run, what exactly they plan to measure, and what scientific result they can get. The company specifically emphasizes that such projects should go beyond what is easily calculated by conventional computers. The team should also have a separate performer, such as a graduate student or postdoc, who will lead this work.
Submissions are designed to resemble a scientific competition. Proposals must be submitted without names or other identifying information that could identify the authors or their institutions. Google will evaluate two things when selecting them: whether the experiment is realistic to run on the current version of Willow, taking into account noise and error, and whether it will produce a noticeable result for science or a new experimental approach.
Google unveiled the Willow processor in late 2024 as a next-generation 105-qubit chip. At the time, the company said it had demonstrated a breakthrough in quantum error correction and completed a standard test in less than five minutes, while one of the most powerful supercomputers would have taken astronomically long to do so. The new early access shows that Google wants to move Willow from a demonstration of its capabilities to real-world research.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how an international team of scientists recorded a completely new state of matter on Google Quantum AI’s Willow quantum processor, which previously existed only in theory. The same chip previously heated up the discussion about the many-worlds interpretation of physics, hinting at the possible existence of parallel universes.
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