Microsoft has announced plans to build a quantum supercomputer after researchers said the next-generation machines will be able to outperform standard computers within the next two years. Quantum computers have the potential to be orders of magnitude more powerful than today’s leading supercomputers, but have so far failed to compete when it comes to practical tasks. A recent benchmark experiment from quantum computing researchers at IBM suggests that the machines will soon be able to perform useful calculations “at a scale where classical computers will struggle”, opening up a vast number of applications. “These machines are coming,” Sabrina Maniscalco, chief executive of quantum computing startup Algorithmiq, told the scientific journal Nature which published the research this month. Microsoft revealed its roadmap for building its first “quantum supercomputer” on Wednesday, following several years of research and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment into the technology. Quantum computers work by replacing traditional bits – the ‘ones’ and ‘zeros’ used to store and transfer digital data – with quantum bits, called qubits, that make use of a quantum phenomena known as superposition to exist in two states at once. This means they can serve as both a ‘one’ and a ‘zero’ simultaneously, so that each qubit added makes them exponentially more powerful than their traditional counterparts. Microsoft said it made its own breakthrough by engineering a new type of qubit, described in the journal Physical Review B on Wednesday, that is stable enough to work at scale on a quantum supercomputer. Microsoft describes a quantum supercomputer as one that can perform one million quantum operations per second, claiming its construction will be completed within the next decade. “Microsoft has achieved the first milestone towards creating a reliable and practical quantum supercomputer,” the firm wrote in a blog post detailing the roadmap. “Today marks an important moment on our path to engineering a quantum supercomputer and ultimately empowering scientists to solve many of the hardest problems facing our planet.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said it was his company’s goal “to compress the next 250 years of chemistry and materials science into the next 25.” The announcements from IBM and Microsoft follow several major quantum computing breakthroughs in recent years. In 2019, scientists at Google announced that they had achieved something known as quantum supremacy, when their Sycamore quantum computer was able to solve a problem in 200 seconds that would have taken the most powerful supercomputer in the world 10,000 years to solve. The milestone has since been repeated by researchers in China, whose quantum computer is able to perform computations nearly 100 trillion times faster than the world’s most powerful supercomputer. While impressive, neither the Chinese machine nor Google’s Sycamore had any practical use. John Martinis, one of the Google researchers behind the 2019 milestone, said the latest news made him “optimistic that this will work in other systems and more complicated algorithms”. Read More Quantum computer discovers bizarre particle that remembers its past Quantum computing adopted by airlines and car makers in hunt for world's first commercial applications Breakthrough could soon allow us to actually use quantum computers, scientists say Elon Musk confirms cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg Apple starts letting developers make apps for its upcoming headset

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WhatsApp may be moving towards allowing people to be found by usernames rather than just phone numbers, according to a new update to the software. The system would let people choose a unique username that could then be used to start new chats. That would allow people to more easily share their contact details without also giving away their phone number. The new update is found in a beta version of the app that has been made available for Android, according to WABetaInfo, which has a track record of finding unannounced features in the app. That beta version shows a part in the settings that allows people to choose a WhatsApp username. “This is your unique username,” the app says, alongside the separate option to choose a name, which is available in the app now and shows alongside messages. The option to select a username will be found within the WhatsApp settings and then the “profile” option, the report indicated. It is inside the latest beta version of the Android app – though is not fully supported even in that system, being still under development and not visible to early testers. There is no real indication of how those usernames might work. WABetaInfo speculated that the system could be relatively limited – such as simply allowing communication with businesses without giving up a phone number to them – to the more general usage as a way to speak to other people on the app. Conversations initiated using usernames appear to keep end-to-end encryption, the report said. WhatsApp has recently rolled out a host of changes intended to protect the privacy of users. Those have included new changes that let people control the information they give up alongside their chats, letting people leave group chats more quietly and allowing people to choose specific people who can see when they are online, for instance. The company has said repeatedly that its aim is to allow WhatsApp conversations to feel like real life, with the privacy and temporary nature that brings. Other related features have included the option to delete messages and edit them after they are sent. Throughout all those changes, however, WhatsApp has always used the phone number as a way of creating and verifying accounts, as well as finding other people on the app. As such, it has meant giving up your phone number in order to talk to anyone, including businesses who may abuse it with spam calls or other marketing. Read More WhatsApp will let you edit messages after they are sent — but there’s a catch Major WhatsApp update enables secret chats WhatsApp unveils new feature to protect ‘your most intimate conversations’

A potentially dangerous setting on Android phones means that emergency phone lines are being pocket dialled, a Metropolitan Police officer has warned. Android devices have a setting called ‘Emergency SOS’ that is intended to make it easier for people to call for help. If a person presses the power button fives times or more, it starts a series of emergency actions like calling for help. Users can choose what that setting does. But by default the phone calls the police number, so that they will be alerted to any issue. The ease with which the setting can be activated means that 999 lines in the UK are getting called by accident, according Met Police chief superintendent Dan Ivey. The button is being pressed while people’s phones are in their pockets, further filling up already stretched emergency call handlers. He asked that people disable the feature to help reduce demand. He described the setting as a “problem”, though some users may opt to keep it active if they feel that it is likely to be used in an emergency. Mr Ivey said that on Saturday the Met Police had received an “unprecedented” 9,500 calls through 999, and 3,000 on non-emergency lines. Only 20 per cent of them had required police to be sent in emergency response mode, he said. “There is a problem with SOS auto mode on Android devices, so we are asking for your help,” Mr Ivey said, describing the issue. He asked that people turn off the feature by going to settings and then choosing “Emergency SOS”, where the feature can be turned off or changed so that it does not ring 999. He asked people to ensure they only call 999 when they need police urgently, on blue lights, in situations where there is a danger to life, someone is using or there is immediate threat of serious violence, or there is serious injury to a person or serious damage to a property. Mr Ivey was responding a to post from the London Ambulance Service in which it said it was also receiving historic numbers of calls. It said that on Monday it had received 7,751 999 calls, the highest since New Year’s Eve 2021, and also asked people to keep 999 for life-threatening emergencies only. The iPhone also has its own Emergency SOS feature, though its design may mean that it is less likely to be triggered by accident. On newer phones it is activated by pressing a volume and power button, and on older ones it is used by pressing the power button fives times; in both cases, however, it also requires users to then push across a slider that will actually activate the emergency call. Read More Reddit says people will get over outrage and causes further outrage LinkedIn bans ‘wonder kid’ SpaceX engineer, 14, hired by Elon Musk Reddit hit by more outages as the fight over its future escalates

Elon Musk’s X has agreed to attempt to settle a lawsuit by former employees who say the company cheated them of severance pay following mass layoffs. After taking over Twitter, which he rebranded X recently, Mr Musk cut nearly two-thirds of the social media company’s workforce from about 8000 to 2,000, claiming he had “no choice” as the company was losing $4m per day. “Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50 per cent more than legally required,” Mr Musk said. Many laid-off employees, however, publicly announced they never got the severance they were due to get. In the months that followed, the company was hit by several lawsuits, including one alleging the layoffs disproportionately targeted women. Now, months after urging Twitter, the company has agreed to try and settle, according to a memo sent by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represents the laid-off workers. The labour and civil rights attorney, representing nearly 2,000 ex-employees, said X would attempt to settle with the laid-off staff. “After 10 months of pressing them in every direction we have succeeded in getting Twitter to the table,” she wrote in the memo cited by Bloomberg. Further schedule for the mediation remains unclear, but reports suggest negotiations could happen on 1 and 2 December. X did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment. Some ex-employees have alleged Twitter did not pay them promised severance either. One employee said earlier this year that he had “never even seen a severance letter let alone been offered severance”. While some former staff attempted to resolve the issue by first filing a class-action lawsuit against X, their contracts with Twitter, however, required that disputes be resolved via arbitration. “We are very proud to be representing nearly 2,000 former Twitter employees, in individual arbitrations as well as more than a dozen class action lawsuits in court,” Ms Liss-Riordan had earlier said in a statement, adding that lawyers and former staff were working to recover “what they are owed”. Read More Musk the messiah (or a very naughty boy?) Elon Musk ignores reporter after claims he stopped Ukrainian attack on Russia Elon Musk was on brink of death after catching malaria on South African safari, book claims Musk the messiah (or a very naughty boy?) Elon Musk warns of ‘civilisational risk’ posed by AI at historic gathering Musk was on brink of death after catching malaria on safari, book claims

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