 For the past 80 years, all computers have worked basically the same way, a series of electrical circuits switching between off and on, zero and one. But that could be about to change. Quantum computing would enable exponential jumps in computing power, turning the entire industry on its head. And according to Microsoft's research lab, it could happen in the next 10 years. Where a conventional computer uses electrical circuits as bits, a quantum computer runs on quantum bits, or qubits, tiny particles magnetically suspended in extreme cold, just fractions of a degree above absolute zero. The idea is to keep each qubit in a state of superposition, so it's simultaneously a one and a zero. That allows for something researchers call a quantum speedup. With the speedup, each qubit increases computing power exponentially. With enough qubits, that power starts to go really fast. It won't help much if you just want to check your email, but it lets researchers tackle complex problems like weather prediction or materials analysis that are still really difficult with conventional computing. Google and Microsoft are particularly interested. They both formed quantum labs, hiring away a lot of the top scientists working on quantum computing. But that speedup isn't happening yet, or at least we haven't seen proof of it. A company called D-Wave is already making and selling quantum computers to different labs, including Google's Quantum AI Lab. But a lot of researchers say that computers can't actually demonstrate a quantum speedup. That means it is a quantum computer, but it's not good at any of the things we want quantum computers to be good at. Of course, D-Wave disagrees, but it's really hard to say who's right. It's one of the weirdest things about quantum computing. It might already be here, and we just don't know it yet.
 For the past 80 years, all computers have worked basically the same way, a series of
 electrical circuits switching between off and on, zero and one.
 But that could be about to change.
 Quantum computing would enable exponential jumps in computing power, turning the entire
 industry on its head.
 And according to Microsoft's research lab, it could happen in the next 10 years.
 Where a conventional computer uses electrical circuits as bits, a quantum computer runs
 on quantum bits, or qubits, tiny particles magnetically suspended in extreme cold, just
 fractions of a degree above absolute zero.
 The idea is to keep each qubit in a state of superposition, so it's simultaneously a
 one and a zero.
 That allows for something researchers call a quantum speedup.
 With the speedup, each qubit increases computing power exponentially.
 With enough qubits, that power starts to go really fast.
 It won't help much if you just want to check your email, but it lets researchers tackle
 complex problems like weather prediction or materials analysis that are still really difficult
 with conventional computing.
 Google and Microsoft are particularly interested.
 They both formed quantum labs, hiring away a lot of the top scientists working on quantum
 computing.
 But that speedup isn't happening yet, or at least we haven't seen proof of it.
 A company called D-Wave is already making and selling quantum computers to different
 labs, including Google's Quantum AI Lab.
 But a lot of researchers say that computers can't actually demonstrate a quantum speedup.
 That means it is a quantum computer, but it's not good at any of the things we want quantum
 computers to be good at.
 Of course, D-Wave disagrees, but it's really hard to say who's right.
 It's one of the weirdest things about quantum computing.
 It might already be here, and we just don't know it yet.