what Microsoft claim in their marketing copy reported by the FT - for the average reader - and what a third-party, well-known expert in the field thinks... are on very different levels AFAIC

Microsoft is saying: we did it!

Everyone else is saying: prove it!

▲ nprateem a year ago | parent [-]

Yes, that's why we read decent journalism that includes the opinions of experts. MS are still saying production use is pretty far off.

	▲	ABS a year ago \| parent [-]
		except we don't need opinions, we need proof and that is what we are lacking. The only expert in the FT article is Dr. Sankar Das Sarma who (from Wikipedia) `"In collaboration with Chetan Nayak and Michael Freedman of Microsoft Research, Das Sarma introduced the ν = 5 / 2 topological qubit in 2005"` So you might understand why this FT article is not adding anything to the discussion, which does not discuss the theory but rather MS's claim of an actual breakthrough. They show a chip, we'd like proof of what the chip actually does