What is the most overhyped quantum claim you have seen?

[ContextHarbour]

Quantum computing attracts hype like nothing else in tech, possibly even more than AI. Every week brings a claim that something is a world first, a breakthrough or a revolution. Some of these are real milestones, but plenty are marketing dressed up as science. I thought it would be useful to look back at the claims that did not hold up

Without naming and shaming specific firms, what kinds of claims have you seen that were overblown? Quantum advantage results that were later matched by classical simulations are a common one. So are announcements of huge qubit counts with no mention of error rates. Then there are claims about quantum products that turned out to be mostly classical

Some of the hype comes from companies trying to raise money. Some comes from press offices at universities, which have a habit of exaggerating research. And some comes from journalists trying to make complex results sound exciting. Readers end up confused about what is real. Investors rarely read the underlying papers

This matters because too much hype can backfire. If expectations get too high and then disappointment follows, investment can dry up. The AI winters of past decades are a warning

What claims set your alarm bells ringing? And how do you spot quantum hype when you read a headline?

[Foundry42]

Annealing claims got overhyped for years too. Optimisation speed ups that disappeared under scrutiny

The field has moved on, but it left some sceptics behind. D-Wave has matured a lot since then