Question from someone who only knows what is in the popular press:
I've read articles that debate the existence of any quantum computers. Are we past that now, or are there people out here that would question whether these are real quantum computers?
Nobody has claimed yet having anything that is a scalable error-corrected quantum computer (or whoever has claimed it was never taken seriously). But we are working hard on getting there, and this 53-qubit "quantum computer" is indeed a machine that can compute things and it uses quantum effects (so it is a "quantum computer"). It is not a "general" or "error corrected" or "scalable" quantum computer. The comparison in sibling comments is very apt: this, and other research hardwares of today, relates to general "useful" quantum computers the way a bunch of vacuum tubes relate to the first classical CPU.
I've read articles that debate the existence of any quantum computers. Are we past that now, or are there people out here that would question whether these are real quantum computers?