We've figured out how to ensure quantum computers can be trusted

What good is a fast computer if you can't trust it? Thanks to half a century of research on getting computers to do their job correctly even in the presence of mechanical errors, our modern machines tend to be pretty reliable. Unfortunately, the laws of quantum mechanics render all that research useless for quantum computers, the sheer complexity of which leaves them prone to errors. Now, we finally have the first demonstration of a quantum program that can detect data corruption. Two research groups – one from the University of Maryland and Georgia Tech and the other from IBM – have demonstrated the same quantum error-detecting program, albeit implemented with different hardware.